TOTP Rewind – the 90s | My memories of 90s chart music

TOTP 16 APR 1999

In the previous show, Jamie Theakston made a reference to Manchester United footballer Ryan Giggs in his intro to Catatonia as the Welsh international had scored an important equaliser for his club in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final versus Juventus. His goal scoring form continued into another huge game – the FA Cup semi-final replay against title rivals Arsenal two days before this TOTP aired. Whilst the goal itself was pretty special, it was his celebration of it that remains uppermost in the memory. Removing his shirt and twirling it around his head, the full extent of the hairiness of the Giggs chest was revealed. Many gagging reflexes were put into operation at the sight. I think it was the shock factor more than anything else. Fancy that lath-thin, whippet-like Ryan Giggs having a big, manly, hairy chest like that. I wonder if any of tonight’s acts had hairy chests or failing that a connection to hair (other than the obvious one on their heads)?

Our host is Jayne Middlemiss (pretty sure she didn’t have a hairy chest) and the first artist on tonight is Phats & Small with their dance anthem hit “Turn Around”. This was only just on the previous show so I’m struggling to find anything else to say about it. I’ve said about vocalist Ben Ofoedu being engaged to TV broadcaster Vanessa Feltz, I’ve referenced their amusingly named album “Now Phats What I Small Music”…what else is there? Oh, the track itself. Well, yeah there is that I suppose. Well, I can hear why it was a success. It was a very accessible tune which crossed over from the dance floor to daytime radio which presumably helped prolong its chart life which clocked in at seven consecutive weeks inside the Top 10. Its legacy includes being voted in at No 38 in MTV Dance’s 2011 list of ‘The 100 Biggest 90’s Dance Anthems of All Time’. That do?

Hairy connection: DHT (a byproduct of testosterone) causes body hair to grow and head hair to shrink sometimes leading to the paradox of hairy men being bald on their heads. Testosterone is sometimes nicknamed ‘phat’.

Meatloaf was still having hits in 1999?! I know the 90s had been a renaissance decade for him what with “Bat Out Of Hell II” being a humongous sales phenomenon but that had been back in 1993. What’s that? He also had a big seller with the follow up “Welcome To The Neighbourhood” two years later? Well, yes he did and yes it delivered him three hit singles including the No 2 hit “I’d Lie For You (And That’s The Truth)” but that was still years prior. By the end of the 90s, he (or his record company) had resorted to yet another Best Of album (the 13th of 20 according to his discography) which was released the previous November just in time for the Christmas sales rush. How convenient/cynical. Ah, so that’s where this song comes from. The practice of releasing a Greatest Hits album but trailing it with a new track was well established by this point and Meatloaf wasn’t going to buck the trend. “Is Nothing Sacred” had originally been recorded for the “Welcome To The Neighbourhood” album but hadn’t made the cut at the time. It was recycled though for “The Very Best Of Meatloaf” when it was re-recorded as a duet with his go to female singer Patti Russo. It was, in fact, not originally scheduled for that role though as there was another song on that Greatest Hits album that was earmarked for that job which was “A Kiss Is A Terrible Thing To Waste” which had been The Loaf’s contribution to the Jim Steinman penned Whistle Down The Wind soundtrack. Indeed, Meat had been rumoured to be locked in as the artist to record “No Matter What” but that particular golden egg landed up in Boyzone’s laps. Had it gone the other way, I wouldn’t have been asking the question I posed at the start of this paragraph.

As for “Is Nothing Sacred”, despite its place in that Greatest Hits album, it certainly wasn’t one of his very best, being a piss poor imitation of some of those classic hits. There would be a few more charting singles into the new millennium but Meatloaf’s death in 2022 aged 74 meant that 2016’s “Braver Than We Are” would be his last ever album and there would be no more and that’s the truth.

Hairy connection: Well, apart from the obvious long hair he sported in the “Bat Out Of Hell” era, Meatloaf also appeared in the musical Hair on and off Broadway.

It’s a repeat of that satellite performance by TLC of “No Scrubs” next. This was another of those remarkably hardy hits that enjoyed an extended chart life, spending two months inside the Top 10 eventually peaking at No 3. However, looking in more detail at its chart stats, there was a moment when things might have panned out differently. After debuting at No 7 it actually dropped to No 13 the following week and at that point you would have been forgiven for thinking that it would continue to spiral down the charts. Not so though as a third week reversal of fortunes saw it climb back into the Top 10 where it would remain for seven consecutive weeks. Even then, there were undulations within that period with the single moving to No 6 then dropping to No 9 before vaulting back to No 3 and spending two weeks at No 5. What was all that about? Well, it would be featured on TOTP twice more so maybe that exposure helped propel it up the charts? I’m not sure but what I do know is that I’m going to have to find something to write about it at least twice more in this blog for which my creativity might require some tender loving care.

Hairy connection: The follow up hit to “No Scrubs” was “Unpretty” which featured a lyric about hair extensions – “You can buy your hair if it won’t grow”.

In the three years since they’d last released an album, The Cranberries had found themselves rather usurped in the rock band fronted by a charismatic female lead singer with a strong, Celtic influenced accent stakes. Catatonia had ripped up the charts with hits like “Mulder And Scully” and “Road Rage” going Top 5, eclipsing the highest peaking singles of their Irish contemporaries who rather unbelievably and certainly unjustly would never have a Top 10 hit. Come 1999, after Dolores O’Riordan had given birth to her first child, The Cranberries were back with fourth album “Bury The Hatchet” preceded by lead single “Promises”. It was a strong, aggressive sounding comeback (though there was a lot of reliance on lyrics like “Oh-woah, oh, oh” and “Doo-doo-doo, doo-doo-doo”) but the truth was that five years on from their commercial heyday, the band’s sales were in decline. “Bury The Hatchet” sold a tenth of the copies which debut “Everybody Else Is Doing It, Why Can’t We?” did. The album’s cover artwork probably didn’t help. Whilst the first three featured standard but effective poses of the band, their fourth went in an altogether more arty direction. It was designed by Storm Thorgerson who was school mates with most of Pink Floyd and would go on to design the iconic cover for their legendary “The Dark Side Of The Moon” album. However, “Bury The Hatchet” would not garner such an illustrious reputation. You could see glimpses of Thorgerson’s work on, for example, “Wish You Were Here” in the concept but a naked man being observed by a suspended giant eye against a desert background looked outlandish rather than creative.

A fifth album followed within two years but its perceived lack of promotion by their record label pushed the band to split from MCA and ushered in an eight year hiatus. Three more albums would arrive (one posthumously) but the death of O’Riordan in 2018 brought a permanent end to the band’s story.

Hairy connection: Consuming dried cranberries is associated with promoting hair growth due to their vitamin C and antioxidant content.

Now I remember the name Glamma Kid but can I tell you anything about the artist behind that name? No I can’t. Not without the aid of the internet anyway.

*checks internet*

OK, well that’s not his real name obviously. That would be Iyael Lyases Tafari Constable…yeah, not as snappy as Glamma Kid is it? Anyway, he was/is a toaster – of the musical kind obviously not a relative of the artificially intelligent electric bread toaster variety that was a recurring character in Red Dwarf with an obsession with making small talk exclusively about toast. Of course not. Hailing from Hackney, he initially made a name for himself by appearing on Tim Westwood’s Radio 1 rap show in 1996. By the following year, he was being awarded a MOBO Award for Best Reggae Act and by 1999 he had two Top 10 hits. The first of those was “Taboo” which interpolated the 1985 Sade hit “The Sweetest Taboo” and was a duet (of sorts) with Shola Ama.

I was never the biggest fan of the original but what they’ve done to it with this treatment is nothing short of criminal and when I say they I mean Glamma Kid. What is he doing here? Bent down on his haunches, stalking the stage in an all white suit? I think he was going for a Mark Morrison vibe but he actually looks like Vic Reeves during one of his rubbing his thighs, over excited by a female guest episodes of Shooting Stars. Then there’s the noise that he’s making. It’s just horrible caterwauling! It’s even worse than Shaggy! Who could possibly want to listen to it more than once or am I missing something?! You know what, I don’t think I am.

Hairy connection: Glamma is presumably short for ‘glamour’ which conjures up images of luxuriously coiffured hair plus Glamma Kid featured on a 1998 remix of David Bowie’s “Fashion” which again has connections with hairstyles.

Yay! It’s the New Radicals again! This was the third time in the show for Gregg Alexander’s band and their hit “You Get What You Give” but you won’t find me moaning about repeat performances in the Chris Cowey era as I have done for month after month, post after post as I’m a complete hypocrite and I liked this one so the more the merrier for me!

However, it does leave me with the problem of what else I’m going to say about it. Well, this appears to be a live vocal performance as Gregg does seem to be straining somewhat with his singing in places. Actually, there also appear to be some technical issues as well with echoing vocals and a definite bit of feedback towards the end of the song. We just about have time for the infamous “Fashion shoots with Beck and Hanson, Courtney Love and Marilyn Manson” line but not for the word “ass” right at the death though I think the BBC censors might have blanked it out. Hard to tell.

Hairy connection: Although Gregg Alexander wore his trademark hat to cover his face to hide the fact that he was not enjoying promoting a hit record via the rules of the music industry, it also concealed the fact that he was bald that was only revealed in the video that accompanied the song.

Talk about creating a buzz about a forthcoming release! There was always going to be great deal of interest in the debut solo single by ex-Spice Girl Geri Halliwell but the promotion around “Look At Me” really went into overdrive. Look at this TOTP exclusive showing of its promo video a whole month before it was actually released! And that was just part of the marketing story. Halliwell embarked on a short promotional tour in support of the single visiting cities such as Rio de Janeiro, New York, Tokyo, Sydney and Milan. Remember, she only had the one song at this point that you could actually buy (even the extra tracks on the CD single were just remixes of “Look At Me”) yet she was straddling the globe to sell it! Was it all worth it? Yes and no. A No 2 hit is nothing to be sneered at but surely after all that promotion a chart topping debut would have been expected. In the end, Geri was beaten by Boyzone doing yet another cover version. That must have stung a bit.

So what about her actual song – was it any good? Well, I give Geri credit for not doing an obvious big ballad (I’m not sure she had the vocal chops for that anyway) or indeed, going the Boyzone route and releasing a cover version. However, “Look At Me” was accused of sounding very similar to another late 90s hit – “History Repeating” by Propellerheads featuring Shirley Bassey and you can hear why though I’m not sure I made that connection myself at the time. The structure of “Look At Me” does work with as opposed to against Geri’s rather limited vocals enabling her to sing in snatches or phrases rather than seamlessly not that there’s anything wrong with that but then what the hell was that middle eight breakdown?! Were the Spice Girls fanbase ready for that or was Geri looking for a new, more mature audience?

I guess I should comment on the video. First off, the fact that it’s nearly all shot in black and white was a bold move from someone who once sang “Colours of the world, Spice up your life”. Again, was that designed to show she was now a serious artist in search of a new type of fan? If that wasn’t a clue then the funeral scene killing of her ‘Ginger Spice’ persona couldn’t be see as anything but a desire to leave behind her former group. This was backed up by the caption at the start of the promo asking “Who is…Geri Halliwell?” suggesting that we perhaps had not seen the real version of her yet. The rest of the video has Halliwell playing around with female stereotypes which she nominated as vamp, bitch, virgin and sister. I’m not quite sure if she succeeded in her observations of said stereotypes nor indeed what those observations might have been.

Whatever you thought of her debut single, and on reflection my judgement would be ‘could’ve been worse’ or even “not without merit”, it paved the way for a run of four consecutive No 1 hits three of which came from her debut album “Schizophonic” and that could in no way be seen as a disappointing return.

Hairy connection: You mean apart from the whole ‘Ginger Spice’ persona being based on her red hair colour and apart from Geri referring to her look as “hair power” and apart from her hair being considered to have altered the course of 1990s beauty history, with fans often emulating her look? Nah, nothing really.

You’d have thought that as the new millennium dawned, we’d have gotten a bit bored with the whole soap star to pop star schtick but here was Tiffany from EastEnders to prove that we still had room for more. I think it’s fair to say that Martine McCuthcheon has moved on from that role not in the least part because of her much loved turn in Love Actually but back then she was Tiffany so big and well liked had her character become. Only a few short months prior, Tiffany Mitchell was written out of the soap when she was killed off on New Year’s Eve after being knocked down by a car driven by Frank Butcher (hence Jayne Middlemiss’s quip about her not being very good at road safety). Twenty-two million people watched that episode and a book about the character of Tiffany was a bestseller!

Given all of that, it’s perhaps no surprise that McCutcheon’s debut single went to No 1. What people did seem to be surprised about though was shown in their reaction to “Perfect Moment” which went along the lines of “It’s quite good innit”. I guess it was a similar response to that which another soap star’s debut single had received not so long before – “Torn” by Natalie Imbruglia. However, whereas the ex-Neighbours star had gone for a shimmering piece of pop perfection, Martine gave us the full, dramatic big ballad treatment. Just as Geri Halliwell surprised us with her almost jazz-pop first solo song, perhaps we might have expected a bit of pop fluff from Martine or a cover version like previous EastEnders star Sophie Lawrence had and Sid Owen would go on to do. Not a bit of it…or rather a little bit of it as “Perfect Moment” was a cover but I’m pretty sure most people were completely unaware of the original. Recorded in 1997 by Polish singer Edyta Górniak, that version was little known outside of Poland and so, again as with Natalie Imbruglia’s “Torn”, most of us thought it was, if not Martine’s song, then it had been written specifically for her. It starts off sounding a bit like “A Different Corner” by George Michael with a some serene strings being plucked before Martine delivers a perfectly adequate vocal. There’s no doubting that she could sing a bit but then she had been in little known, mid 90s girl group Milan who spent one week at No 82 with a single called “Lead Me On” – I did say they were little known! Anyway, “Perfect Moment” came over as quite a classy tune in the style of Barbra Streisand or at least Celine Dion and great things were predicted for Martine McCutcheon the pop star. A No 2 album duly followed and a pair of No 6 singles but by 2000, diminishing returns kicked in and her next two albums didn’t produce anywhere near the same numbers. Then came a return to acting and the role of Natalie in Love Actually though I have to say I can’t think of much else I e seen her in recently and Love Actually is now 23 years old.

*checks her filmography*

Martine’s most recent TV appearances have been as herself in shows like Loose Women, Celebrity Gogglebox and The Masked Singer in which she came 10th dressed as a swan. Probably not her perfect moment then.

Hairy connection: Martine has openly discussed her struggles with scalp sensitivity and dandruff endorsing Polytar medicinal shampoo to treat these issues and has become a scalp health advocate using her platform to discuss the impact of stress and health issues on her hair.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Phats & Small	Turn Around	Negative
2	Meatloaf	Is Nothing Sacred	I did not
3	TLC	No Scrubs	Nah
4	The Cranberries	Promises	Nope
5	Glamma Kid / Shola Ama	Taboo	No chance
6	New Radicals	You Get What You Give	YES!
7	Geri Halliwell	Look At Me	I did not
8	Martine McCuthcheon	Perfect Moment	And no

Disclaimer

I make no claim to the rights of this show and all ownership and contents including logos and graphics belongs totally to the BBC or copyright holder(s).

All opinions on the music and artists featured are my own. Sorry if you don’t agre

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002rlpd/top-of-the-pops-16041999

TOTP 09 APR 1999

Posted on 3 Days Ago by 80stastic

As usual, this episode of TOTP is a complete hotchpotch of musical styles and artists. There’s new acts, established ones, returning former Britpop luminaries, the debut of a soon to be rap superstar, a dance track and an almost novelty No 1. Utter chaos. Our host is Jamie Theakston and we start with a hit going down the charts – of course we do. However, I like this one so no Chris Cowey bashing from me this time! Indeed, “You Get What You Give” by New Radicals would prove to be a long term Top 40 resident spending a month in the Top 10, ten weeks inside the Top 20 and over three months on the Top 40 as a whole. I mean, it’s not quite up there with the Steps version of “Tragedy” or “How Will I Live” by LeAnn Rimes but even so.

By way of contrast, what would be the band’s second and final single, the rather excellent “Someday We’ll Know”, spent a meagre two weeks within the Top 100, peaking at No 48. Why the disparity? Well, firstly it took over five months for it to be released. Presumably, this was because of the extended chart life of “You Get What You Give” meaning the band’s record label MCA had to wait for its sales to dissipate before any follow up could be made available. An understandable decision but the consequence of which was that much of the momentum behind the band was lost. Secondly and most impactful though was the press release issued by Gregg Alexander on July 12th informing the world that the New Radicals were breaking up. I’m guessing MCA couldn’t see the point in spending much time or money promoting the single after that although a video was made to accompany it (albeit quite a lacklustre one). So, the New Radicals – they came, they saw, they conquered and then turned their back on it all. A missed opportunity creatively and commercially or an artist who stood proud and firm by his principles and rejected the machinations of the music industry? You decide.

After an exclusive pre-release performance last week (the like of which the show’s captions were just terming as ‘NEW’), Mariah Carey entered the charts at No 16 with “I Still Believe”. It turns out that this was actually a cover version of a song originally recorded by one Brenda K. Starr who had an early career as an R&B singer and a role in the hip-hop film Beat Street but who would go on to be better known as a Latin pop artist. Here’s the real kicker though – Mariah Carey used to be her backing singer. Described by the five-octave vocal ranged one as being her ‘mentrix’, Starr initiated Mariah’s solo career by giving her demo tape to Columbia Records executive (and future Mr Carey) Tommy Mottola. Perhaps as some sort of tribute to Starr, Carey would record her own version of “I Still Believe” 10 years after the original was released.

This story got me thinking…are they any other examples of a former backing singer recording one of the main attraction’s songs? There are plenty of examples of backing singers going into have their own solo careers – Sheryl Crow performed that role for Michael Jackson whilst Luther Vandross did the same for David Bowie for example – but did anyone go that step further and cut their own version of a song they presumably did backing vocals for? The closest I can come up with is Whitney Houston who provided backing vocals for Chaka Khan aged just 15 and then went on to record her own version of the latter’s “I’m Every Woman”. However, she didn’t originally sing on the Chaka original. So unless, Julia Fordham did a version of “Just What I Always Wanted” by Mari Wilson or Eddie Reader gave her take on a Eurythmics number, I’m at a loss.

A curious release next. After racking up three hits over the previous twelve months including a No 1, Another Level’s next move was a double A-side single featuring a cover version and, bizarrely, a remix of their debut hit. What was all this about then? Well, from what I can work out, the strategy behind the release of “Holding Back The Years” / “Be Alone No More” was two pronged. Their take on the Simply Red classic was a charity record with the profits from it going to the Help A London Child project (hence one of the band shouting “Yeah, c’mon…help a London child y’all” during this performance) whilst the revisiting of their debut hit was part of the promotion of a remix album that presumably was to…well, I’m not sure why they felt the need to release a remix album just five months after their debut studio album. To maintain their profile until the second album came out? Seems unlikely given that said album (“Nexus”) arrived five months after the remix album. Was it to showcase their R&B credentials? Whatever the reason, its release was a non event with it peaking at No 76.

As for their take on “Holding Back The Years”, the guy doing lead vocals can certainly sing but it isn’t a patch on the Hucknall original and I say that as someone who for ages couldn’t bear to listen to the Simply Red version. I might have lessened my resolve on that one as time has passed. We’ll be seeing Another Level three more times during these TOTP repeats as said second album would yield a trio of hit singles. Oh great. I think I’ve got the fear. Can someone help me with holding back the fear?

Here’s that dance hit I mentioned at the top of the post. As Jamie Theakston referenced in his intro to this one, Phats & Small were from Brighton and “Turn Around” was the first and biggest of their four UK hits. Now, I think it’s probably quite apparent from the fact that there’s two blokes at the back of the stage spinning the decks behind two huge stacks, one labelled ‘Phats’ and the other ‘Small’ that the bloke up front doing the singing wasn’t, in fact, either Phats or Small. No, he was Ben Ofoedu whose biggest claim to fame might not be his involvement with this track (and subsequent hits) but the fact that he was engaged to broadcaster Vanessa Feltz for 17 years. Their ultimate split was very public with Feltz describing it in detail in her autobiography Vanessa Bares All so I don’t propose to go into that any further. After all this is a music blog not a celebrity gossip column so let’s get back to the music.

“Turn Around” pretty much hit the mark in following the same blueprint that Daft Punk used for side project Stardust’s 1998 hit “Music Sounds Better With You”. Or, to put it another way, it was very repetitive. That didn’t stop it getting to No 2 in the UK charts and becoming a hit all around Europe though. Despite the single’s success and that of subsequent releases, like many dance acts of the time, Phats & Small couldn’t generate much in the way of album sales despite it having one of the best titles ever. A few weeks later in 1999, another duo would take another dance track right up the charts to No 1 but Shanks & Bigfoot couldn’t rival Phats & Small when it came to album titles – “Swings And Roundabouts” was no “Now Phats What I Small Music”.

Time for a returning Britpop luminary now but, in truth, Reef weren’t really Britpop were they? They were a British rock band that happened to be successful in the era of Britpop. And successful they were. A No 1 album and a string of hit singles and yet all I can remember of them is “Place Your Hands” (which I bought) and its follow up “Come Back Brighter”. Oh, and this…

Anyway, I certainly don’t remember “I’ve Got Something To Say” which was the lead single from their third album “Rides”. The two years since last album “Glow” had seen trends change though. For one, Britpop was over and although Reef probably didn’t perceive themselves as being part of it, did that movement’s demise have any effect on their popularity? That proposition is probably a bit of a stretch I have to admit but what is true is that their commercial fortunes did decrease. Sure, “Rides” went Top 3 but it only achieved a fifth of the sales of “Glow”. Listening to “I’ve Got Something To Say” in 2026, I quite like it in a not having to be too engaged type of way but it doesn’t seem to have advanced their sound at all in the time they’d been away and maybe that was the problem? It would prove to be their penultimate UK Top 40 hit. The band are still together today albeit after a seven year hiatus between 2003 and 2010 having last released an album in 2022 which went Top 20. Echoing Jamie Theakston’s comment, I can confirm that they are still hairy. Very hairy.

In case you were wondering, Jamie Theakston’s comments about “Welsh gigs” and “scoring a last minute equaliser” were referencing the fact that Welsh footballer Ryan Giggs had scored in the 92nd minute to grab a 1-1 draw for Manchester United in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final against Juventus two days before this TOTP aired. United would, of course, go into win the Champions League and complete an historic treble that season. I wonder if Theakston nearly said Cantona instead of Catatonia when introducing the Welsh band as the next artist on the show?

Anyway, unlike with Reef, I think I’m safe describing Cerys and co as returning Britpop luminaries (or should that be Cool Cymru stars?). They hadn’t been away as long as Reef – indeed, there was barely 14 months between the albums “International Velvet” and “Equally Cursed And Blessed” – and yet, seen through the perspective of time passed, just like Reef, Catatonia did experience a fall off in commercial success. It didn’t seem like it at the time, of course, as “Equally Cursed And Blessed” followed “International Velvet” to the top of the charts but the plain truth is that the former sold a third of what the latter did despite its lead single “Dead From The Waist Down” becoming the band’s third Top 10 hit. Unlike Reef who sounded pretty similar to how they did two years prior, the new track was quite a departure from previous hits such as “Mulder And Scully” and “Road Rage”. A country tinged ballad, it was almost a sweet song by comparison. It also strikes me, listening to it back, that it’s quite a simple song with some basic chord structures but is embellished with some string flourishes which, alongside Cerys’s distinctive vocal phrasing, make the track.

Despite debuting at No 1 and at one point all three of the band’s albums being in the Top 40, “Equally Cursed And Blessed” didn’t stick around the charts as long as its predecessor though it did record five weeks in the Top 10. “International Velvet”, by comparison, remained there for 18 weeks. Had they rush released a follow up to their best known work too soon? If so, they didn’t make that same mistake again by taking nearly two and a half years to come up with their fourth and final album “Paper Scissors Stone”. The strategy of taking a longer gestation period didn’t work either as it only spent four weeks in the charts before the band split up for good.

And so to the debut of that soon-to-be rap superstar. Twenty seven years on fromhis debut hit, could any of us who were around back then honestly say that they knew that this kid was going to go down in music history as a legend? I’m pretty sure I can’t. A legend he is though and that can’t be denied, regardless of what you think of his music. Just a quick scan of his Wikipedia page is enough to appreciate how big a name and influence this guy is. His discography shows cross-Atlantic No 1 albums with every release helping to make him the best selling music artist in America during the 2000s with global sales exceeding 220 million. The roll call of artists who have cited him as an influence includes Usher, 50 Cent, Ed Sheeran, Drake, Lana Del Ray…the list goes on and on. He’s won 15 Grammy Awards and been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. His song writing has been compared to that of John Lennon whilst his stage presence has been lauded by the likes of Elton John whom he calls a friend. He has been nicknamed the Elvis of hip-hop and is widely recognized for breaking racial barriers for the acceptance of white rappers in popular music. He is…Vanilla Ice! I’M JOKING!!it’s Eminem of course and we see him here at the start of his mega career with “My Name Is”.

Now, I wasn’t sure about this track initially. Firstly, I’m not a rap enthusiast so it would have to be quite something to have taken me with it immediately. It felt a bit…gimmicky? Not authentic? Even Eminem himself is on record as describing it as ‘tongue-in-cheek’ and ‘kitschy’ and that, ultimately, he got tired of performing it. I was also a bit dumb when it came to understanding the ‘Slim Shady’ persona. The opening lines of “Hi, my name is, what? My name is, who? My name is chka-chka, Slim Shady” confused me. Wasn’t his name Eminem? Like I said, I was a bit dumb on that front. However, in the end, I couldn’t resist its catchiness nor ignore its provocative lyrics, so provocative in fact that Eminem’s mother Debbie Mathers filed a $10 million slander lawsuit against her son for insinuating that she did drugs in the line “99% of my life I was lied to, I just found out my mom does more dope than I do”. Even in this sanitised version of the song*, the BBC censors had to make some changes with certain word deemed to be offensive being muffled and even the subtitles are scrambled just to ensure nothing got through the net. Talking of censorship, record label Interscope released a ‘clean’ version of parent album “The Slim Shady LP” but guess what? None of the white , middle class lads shopping at the Our Price in Altrincham where I was working wanted to buy that. Not very street was it? Not very ‘in the hood’.

*Labbi Siffre whose track “I Got The…” is interpolated for “My Name Is” insisted that Eminem change the original lyrics that were sexist and homophobic.

It’s a second week at the top for Mr. Oizo and “Flat Beat” and I don’t know what else to say about this one. Just bizarre. OK, what I will say is that the ‘Flat Eric’ puppet would briefly look as if it was going to be the next huge merchandising opportunity. Certainly HMV chain’s Simon Winter said at the time that the little yellow puppet was creating demand for anything with its image reproduced on it and that it had the potential to rival South Park as that year’s big seller. I have to say that I don’t recall ‘Flat Eric Fever’ happening in any significant way and certainly don’t remember the Our Price store in Altrincham selling any such merchandise. Was it a licensing issue? If so, somebody holds the rights now as a quick search of the internet shows ‘Flat Eric’ T-shirts, hoodies, mugs and socks. However, it seems that a toy or puppet of the little yellow fella is only available via vintage websites or as pre-owned items suggesting that nobody is manufacturing them anymore and that somebody indeed did have the licence to produce and sell them back in the day. Now I come to think of it, wasn’t there one in an episode of The Office? I think there was when David Brent was showing someone new around. So there you go. The sharp, cultural impact of Flat Eric writ large.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	New Radicals	You Get What You Give	YES!
2	Mariah Carey	I still Believe	No thanks
3	Another Level	Holding Back The Years” / “Be Alone No More	Never
4	Phats & Small	Turn Around	Nah
5	Reef	I’ve Got Something To Say	Negative
6	Catatonia	Dead From The Waist Down	Nope
7	Eminem	My Name Is	No
8	Mr. Oizo	Flat Beat	I did not

Disclaimer

I make no claim to the rights of this show and all ownership and contents including logos and graphics belongs totally to the BBC or copyright holder(s).

All opinions on the music and artists featured are my own. Sorry if you don’t agree.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002r8hl/top-of-the-pops-09041999

TOTP 02 APR 1999

Posted on 7 Days Ago by 80stastic

We have a new host on display in this TOTP, one who seemed to buck the trend of presenters being recruited by executive producer Chris Cowey from a non-radio background. Jamie Theakston and Jayne Middlemiss were from youth TV programme The O-Zone whilst Kate Thornton had a journalism background and Gail Porter came from Children’s BBC Scotland. However, Scott Mills was a radio person, a good, old fashioned DJ, the likes of whom you don’t get on the airwaves much these days apart from…well, Scott Mills. With Radio 2’s schedules populated by celebrities rather than professional disc jockeys including such names as Paddy McGuinness, Romesh Ranganathan, Michael Ball and Rylan Clark, Mills still carry the torch for time served DJs who haven’t just adopted radio as another string to their bow off the back of existing fame. Mills began his career at 16 working for commercial radio until, in 1999 at the age of 26 he was presenting the early breakfast show (4-7 am) on Radio 1. Cowey obviously thought this qualified Mills for a shot at hosting TOTP and so here he was with his face on our TVs in full technicolour rather than just a disembodied voice on our radios. All power to him and his continued high profile career which has taken him to the coveted position of presenting the breakfast show on Radio 2.

Having said all of that, I’m not the biggest Scott Mills fan. I just don’t warm to him. When I have seen him on TV such as on the celebrity version of Race Across The World, I found him almost unlikeable. He seems to me to have been very lucky to have reached the heights he has in his chosen career. Maybe I’ve misjudged him though. Let’s see how he did all those years ago as a debutant TOTP host…

Well, you’ve got to feel for the guy here. His debut on the BBC’s legendary pop music show and the first act on that he has to comment on are this pile of shite! I’ve had executive producer Chris Cowey pegged as many things but cruel wasn’t one of them…until now. I must have blanked this lot from my memory as an act of mental self-defence and to save my mortal soul from torment. “Witch Doctor” by Cartoons must be up there as one of the worst hits of the decade if not of all time. Originally a hit in the 50s for Ross Bagdasarian under the stage name of David Seville, the song was given an extra dimension when Bagdasarian created a trio of singing chipmunks who would become Alvin And The Chipmunks and inflict their squeaking voices on the world. If that wasn’t enough, novelty Danish band Cartoons whose USP was to update 50s songs with their self-styled ‘technobilly’ sound (basically adding a Eurodance backing) and wear ridiculously OTT stage costumes based on the old ‘Teddy Boy’ look, got their hands on “Witch Doctor” in the late 90s. Sensing that the track’s nonsensical “oo-ee-oo-ah-ah, ting-tang, walla-walla, bing-bang” chorus would fit perfectly with their outlandish image and brand of cartoonish pop music, the band recorded a version and released it to huge success in the UK where it landed at No 2. What were we thinking?! Was anybody who bought this thinking at all?! Who was buying this slop and why?! Was it all just tiny kids and weeny boppers?! If so, where were the parents and why didn’t they stop them?! The single really should have come with ‘Parental Advisory’ warning stickers that stated ‘Allowing your young child to buy this record will rot their brains and significantly damage their credibility rating once they grow up’. Talking of which, Devo did a version of this which featured on the soundtrack to The Rugrats Movie which I based the whole of my last post on. I don’t think either Devo or myself should ever mention that again.

I’m no Des’ree expert but I’m sure that this single – “You Gotta Be” – had been a hit before 1999.

*checks official charts website*

I was right! Not only had it been a hit before but it had been a hit twice before! Look at this:

April 1994 – No 20
March 1995 – No 14

and now this

April 1999 – No 10

What was all this about then? Well, it was originally released as the lead single from Des’ree’s second album “I Ain’t Movin’” but after being a modest hit, it was given a second chance after it became a Top 5 hit in America resulting in an improved chart position of six places. Then five years, five singles and one album later, it was back again, this time making the Top 10. So what happened in 1999 that made it a hit for the third time? Do I really have to tell you? I do? OK, it was used in an advert of course and yet again it was a car advert:

Off the back of that exposure, record label Sony decided to strike while the iron was hot and rerelease “You Gotta Be” for a quick cash in and fair enough. However, the decision to the add the track to Des’ree’s current album “Supernatural” was cynical in the extreme. As a means of maintaining Des’ree’s momentum following the success of its lead single “Life” it made sense but to blatantly tack a five year old song onto to an artist’s new album? Nah, that, as the kids today would say, was stinky. There’s probably loads more to say about the song itself so I will refer you to my earlier comments from when it was a hit in 1995:

TOTP 09 MAR 1995

Next up is one of the few songs that I ever bought on day one of its release. This means it must have had loads of pre-sale airplay for me to have been aware of it so early I’m guessing. That promotion clearly worked on me as I love “You Get What You Give” by New Radicals. In many ways it is the crystallisation of what appeals to me in a pop/rock song – a synthesis of a hook laden melody, a propelling rhythm and intriguing lyrics (more of which later). This one was a winner from the off for me and I was always going to fall for its charms. If this debut single was anything to go by then the band, centred around the songwriting duo of Greg Alexander and Danielle Brisebois, seemed destined for greatness. It didn’t turn out that way. One album and one follow up single was all that they released prior to splitting before 1999 was up.

Alexander is an interesting character. Raised in a conservative Jehovah’s Witness household, he joined his first band aged just 14 before signing to A&M Records two years later and released two solo albums to little acclaim or profile. However, the formation of New Radicals, which was essentially a vehicle to platform his and Brisebois’s songwriting, proved to be a stars-aligning moment. Their album “Maybe You’ve Been Brainwashed Too” would go platinum in the US and reach the Top 10 over here. Some of the song titles within it indicated that the Alexander/Brisebois partnership operated outside of the norms of musical composition. Look at these:

“Mother We Just Can’t Get Enough”
“I Hope I Didn’t Just Give Away the Ending”
“Jehovah Made This Whole Joint for You”
“Crying Like a Church on Monday”

Music press reviews of the album were overwhelmingly positive and cited a host of musical influences including Hall & Oates, Phil Spector, Style Council, Prince, Todd Rundgren and even Chumbawamba whilst noting lyrics that challenged the commercialisation of the Western world and the influence of the media and religion. None of this seemed to mean much to Alexander though who, within three months of this TOTP appearance, called time on the New Radicals in favour of concentrating on songwriting and production for other artists. It proved to be a financially beneficial decision with Alexander going on to work with the likes of Geri Halliwell, Rod Stewart, Enrique Iglesias and Texas. Some of his most notable co-authored hits include Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s “Murder On The Dance Floor” and Ronan Keating’s “Life Is A Rollercoaster”. Artists definitely not on his list of collaborations would be Beck, Hanson, Courtney Love and Marilyn Manson whom he infamously called fakes and threatened to kick their asses in the closing lyrics to “You Get What You Give”. Here are those lyrics in full:

“Health insurance, rip off lying
FDA, big bankers buying
Fake computer crashes dining
Cloning while they’re multiplying
Fashion shoots with Beck and Hanson
Courtney Love and Marilyn Manson
You’re all fakes
Run to your mansions
Come around, we’ll kick your ass in”

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Gregg Alexander / Rick Nowels

You Get What You Give lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Spirit Music Group

Alexander wrote those words to test whether the media would concern themselves with the serious political issues of the opening lines or the faux celebrity bashing that followed. Predictably, it was the latter which captured the headlines proving Alexander’s suspicion about media manipulation and priorities. Supposedly the celebrities mentioned in those lyrics didn’t take permanent umbrage though Marilyn Manson reportedly commented that he didn’t mind that Alexander said he’d kick his ass in but objected to being named in the same sentence as Courtney Love!

In the end, despite all his pushback against the media and music industry operations, Alexander found himself jumping through the same hoops to promote his hit that he’d rallied against and lost any remaining faith in the project. His adoption of a low worn hat to cover his face whilst performing (as per this TOTP appearance) was to hide his lack of enthusiasm for what he was doing. Ultimately, he’d gotten back what he’d given to the New Radicals and chose another path leaving us with one memorable hit and an album that deserved more recognition.

After three uptempo, dance-pop tunes on the spin, it was time for Billie to stop revolving and deliver a more mature sounding, slower song. Partly to mix things up a bit but also because, you know, she wanted to. Probably. Anyway, the almost* title track from her album was chosen for the job and so “Honey To The Bee” became her fourth consecutive hit.

*The album was actually called “Honey To The B”.

Now, perhaps the obvious thing to do here was release a big, string laden ballad to showcase Billie’s range and diversity but what we actually got was her best impression of All Saints as, and there’s no getting away from this, “Honey To The Bee” is essentially “Never Ever Pt II”. I suppose it wasn’t the worst idea in the world to copy one of the most successful singles of the past 18 months but when even Scott Mills described Billie as having gone “all saintly” in his intro, well, it can’t have been any more obvious. Ms Piper pulls off the steal/homage (delete as appropriate) competently but it’s peak of No 3 and subsequent spiral down the charts and out of the Top 40 within a month suggests it was never destined to have the enduring appeal of “Never Ever”. I guess you just can’t beat the original sometimes.

We’re at the midway point of the show so let’s do a half-term report on Scott Mills and his performance so far. Well, he hasn’t done anything wrong but he’s hardly got a scintillating screen presence has he? Must do better in the second half. A grade of C minus I think is appropriate. Back to the music and a song that was very popular with the staff at the Our Price in Altrincham where I was working at the time and when I say the staff I mean the female staff. Having reached commercial and critical mass with second album “CrazySexyCool” and its attendant hits “Creep” and “Waterfalls”, TLC were faced with the task of making good on that success and they gave it decent shot with third album “Fanmail”. Though it only achieved half of what its predecessor sold, 10 million copies shifted worldwide is not to be sniffed at.

Its lead single was “No Scrubs”. An American No 1 and double Grammy winner, the song’s lyrics seemed to describe the position of a woman who wasn’t going to just settle for any man just to avoid being single which sounds fair enough to me. However, the term ‘scrub’ and the perceived demonising of men with limited money and romantic vocabulary sparked a divisive response and even triggered a series of answer records , most notably by Sporty Thievz and their hit “No Pigeons”. Personally, I think that strand of reaction is a bit rich considering the misogyny that persisted in some R&B and rap music. “No Scrubs” was the first time that Rozonda ‘Chilli’ Thomas sang lead vocals on a TLC single and its tone, rightly or wrongly, brought comparisons with Madonna’s “Material Girl” and Gwen Guthrie’s “Ain’t Nothin’ Goin’ On But The Rent”. It’s also the second song on this particular TOTP that my wife really liked alongside Billie’s “Honey To The Bee”. I’m not sure if anything should be read into that.

An ‘exclusive’ performance now from Mariah Carey who is still plugging her Best Of album “#1’s” with another new track called “I Still Believe”. Her last single, a duet with Whitney Houston from the soundtrack to The Prince Of Egypt movie, was called “When You Believe” – it’s like she was constructing a conversation between two people about their belief systems. Anyway, Mariah was still going through an identity crisis by this point in terms of whether she was a power balladeer or an R&B dance diva which is reflected in the fact that the album version of the track conforms to the former whilst the performance of it she gives here is definitely of the latter persuasion. Having listened to both, I’d have to say I’m not arsed about either construct.

The video for the ballad version sees Mariah recreate Marilyn Monroe’s 1953 performance for US troops stationed in Korea. It’s not very convincing despite Mariah being styled to look like Marilyn. However, I did note one detail that completely dates it which is someone in the crowd trying to take a picture of Mariah with a disposable camera. Remember them? Are they still a thing? They seemed to be predominantly used at weddings where one would be put on each table at the meal for guests themselves to take photos which would then go into the the happy couple’s photo album of the day. Of course today, everyone at that Mariah video shoot would just have their mobile phones out. They were simpler times back then.

I have moaned and criticised, criticised and moaned in this blog about the Chris Cowey era and the practice of repeatedly reshowing hits that were coming down the charts. It’s maybe because I grew up watching TOTP in the late 70s and 80s when the rules were that you couldn’t secure a place on the show’s running order if your song was going down the charts. I have tried to see the arguments for it – week one record company discounting subverting the charts and creating false peaks and troughs – but this example of the exercise really is unfathomable and inexcusable. “Blame It On The Weatherman” by B*Witched was No 1 last week and so rightly featured on the show. This week, it’s been torpedoed from its reign at the top and resides at No 9. Quite the fall down the charts. So why was a performance of it on our TVs again?! Come on Cowey? Explain yourself! Talk your way out of this one! From No 1 to No 9! Surely such a downward motion did not deserve more exposure?! It equalled the decade’s biggest fall from the top previously held by Iron Maiden’s “Bring Your Daughter… To The Slaughter” in January 1991. Even if it was some sort of quid pro quo arrangement, said promotion didn’t stop the single’s slide down the Top 40. These were its next four chart positions:

14 – 19 – 24 – 35

Neither did its parent album benefit much in terms of a resurgence up the charts so what was it all about? Well, looking at the new entries this week, maybe there weren’t that many viable other options. Of the other four entries in the chart (not counting the new No 1), three were dance acts – System F, Sash! and Aphex Twin – which the show had historically struggled to get the staging right for whilst the fourth was a bit niche – the Brian Setzer Orchestra with their swing revival hit “Jump Jive N’ Wail”. Furthermore, given the…erm…unusual nature of the new No 1 and the fact that there’s already been a novelty hit opening the show, perhaps that topping and tailing required something a bit more mainstream in the middle. Hang on…am I making an excuse for Cowey here when I should actually blame it on him?

Having worked in record shops since late 1990, by April of 1999, I was less than 12 months away from leaving it all behind me and becoming a civil servant (what was I thinking?!). I was nearly 32 by the time I finally left but I really should have read the signs much earlier that it was time for me to go. One of those signs was “Flat Beat” by Mr. Oizo. I just didn’t get it. How could a track that was basically anti-music inspire such adoration and sales, enough to take it to No 1?! Yes, of course there was the fact that this sparse track, which was basically a repeated bass loop and drum sample, was backed by the weight of the huge promotion machine that was a Levi’s ad campaign (to promote their new range of Sta-Press clothing) and yes, it was fronted by a yellow puppet (put together by Muppets creator Jim Henson) which added to its novelty value but the track itself was almost unlistenable wasn’t it? Well wasn’t it?! Was it being played in clubs? Did it make more sense in that environment? How could anyone listen to it in the privacy of their own home for enjoyment? As I said, I just didn’t get it.

So who was Mr. Oizo? He was Quentin* Dupieux, a French electronic musician, record producer, songwriter and filmmaker who used the pseudonym of Mr. Oizo to promote his musical output. Apparently, it only took him two hours to come up with “Flat Beat”, a claim I can well believe.

*Hence the only ‘lyric’ in it being “Oh yeah, I used to know Quentin…He’s a real…he’s a real jerk”

The one thing I did like about this whole nonsense was that Scott Mills managed to raise his debut TOTP performance up a notch by re-enacting one of those Levi’s ads and featuring alongside Flat Eric. Worthy of a B grade I think.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Cartoons	Witch Doctor	I’d rather eat my own arm
2	Des’ree	You Gotta Be	No
3	New Radicals	You Get What You Give	YES! On day one too!
4	Billie	Honey To The Bee	Nope
5	TLC	No Scrubs	I didn’t
6	Mariah Carey	I Still Believe	I don’t though – no
7	B*Witched	Blame It On The Weatherman	Nah
8	Mr. Oizo	Flat Beat	Never

Disclaimer

I make no claim to the rights of this show and all ownership and contents including logos and graphics belongs totally to the BBC or copyright holder(s).

All opinions on the music and artists featured are my own. Sorry if you don’t agree.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002r8hj/top-of-the-pops-02041999

TOTP 26 MAR 1999

Posted on 11 Days Ago by 80stastic

On the same day this TOTP aired, The Rugrats Movie opened in UK cinemas. Based on the popular children’s animated TV series about the lives of a group of American toddlers and infants, the show was made available to British audiences via being the featured cartoon on Saturday morning children’s television series Live & Kicking on BBC1. Working in a record shop at the time of its transmission on a weekend, I didn’t catch Rugrats that often but I always enjoyed the adventures of Tommy, Chuckie, Angelica et al. I know I wasn’t the show’s target audience but it was light, innocent fun and an antidote to the stresses of adult life. I wonder which Rugrats character the artists featured in this TOTP would be?

We start with something straight out of left field – Andy Williams with “Music To Watch Girls By”. When I say ‘left field’, I mean as opposed to all the other dance crud or pop puppets in the charts at this time but in actual fact, the presence of a legendary easy listening crooner in the UK Top 40 in the 90s wasn’t a total shock. In the middle part of the decade we’d had a revival of the genre courtesy of Mike Flowers Pops and their easy listening version of “Wonderwall” by Oasis. This triggered a reaction within younger audiences tired of grunge and subsequently Britpop and their embracing of a more nostalgic sound would lead to the ‘lounge scene’ which saw a resurgence in cool lounge bars and clubs that featured easy-listening records and cocktail music. However, that wasn’t necessarily what caused Andy Williams to suddenly be a chart star again. No, that was down to a TV advert. Of course it was. This one, in fact, for a Ford Pinto car:

Williams looks the consummate performer here despite being 71 at the time. The success of the song (it peaked at No 9 in the charts) led to the obvious release of an Andy Williams Best Of but also an easy listening compilation album also called “Music To Watch Girls By” of which there were two volumes I think featuring artists like Tony Bennet, Bobby Darin, Perry Como and Petula Clark. However, my immediate go to Andy Williams memory is “Happy Heart” being used to soundtrack the ending of the Danny Boyle film Shallow Grave.

Which Rugrat character would they be? Grandpa Lou. Not only is he the oldest character but he had an obsession with the number 15. Look at these connections between Andy Williams and that number:

When renewing his contract with CBS in 1966, Andy Williams negotiated a $1.5 million guarantee to record 15 albums over the following five years.
Out of his 43-44 recorded albums, 15 were gold-certified.
Marriage Date: He married Claudine Longet on December 15, 1961.

For a while, Kele Le Roc looked like she would be a prime mover in the UK R&B scene. In 1999, she won two MOBO awards for Best Newcomer and for Best Single and yet she seemed to fall away as fast as she had appeared. Just one album was ever released under her name which failed to impact the charts in any major way despite it including two Top 10 hits and then it all went quiet. So what happened to Kele Le Roc? Well, at the point where her career seemed on the point of lift off, she was dropped by record label Polydor despite those two MOBO gongs which, on the face of it, seems a ludicrous decision. I don’t know the whole story but Kele herself cited the catch-all phrase ‘creative differences’. She then spent three years trying to free herself from her contract with management company First Ave and all momentum for her solo career was lost. However, she didn’t give up on music and became a prominent featured vocalist in the UK Garage scene, collaborating with artists like Basement Jaxx, Shy FX, and T-Power.

In this TOTP performance, she was promoting the second of those two hit singles, the MOBO award winning “My Love”. I’m guessing when she thinks back to that time, this would be the TV appearance she wants to be remembered for and not the one that took place on ITV’s CD:UK during which her performance was interrupted by a stage invader who pinches her microphone off her and slams it to the floor whilst holding a banner saying ‘The Womb’ (which was the name of his own band). Apparently, he was protesting about the show’s policy of miming even though it seems that Kele was singing live. I think she handled it pretty well in fairness which is more than the protester did with that microphone.

Which Rugrat character would they be? Angelica – in a 10th-anniversary special titled “All Growed Up”, Angelica and Tommy fight over a microphone attached to a karaoke machine.

From their starting position of having a novelty, line dancing hit with “5,6,7,8”, the success that Steps achieved was as impressive as it was unlikely. Thirteen consecutive Top 5 hits including two No 1s, three chart topping albums and 22 million records sold worldwide. Like Take That, after an initial split, they returned to the pop world in the new millennium and are still touring and recording and their hits have been the source material for a jukebox musical. This single – “Better Best Forgotten” – only missed the top spot by one place and was the final track lifted from their debut album “Step One”. However, their legacy hasn’t permeated every corner of the music world. Check out this video of the rapper Aitch appearing on YouTube interview show Chicken Shop Date:

It’s the Alan Partridge style, non-plussed reaction that provides the genuine comedy moment for me – absolutely no idea who his phonic namesake is. Still, in a battle of who’s the more famous, I’m not sure who the winner out of ‘H’ or ‘Aitch’ would be despite the latter’s recent stint on I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here.

Which Rugrat character would they be? Chuckie’s step-sister Kimi Watanabe-Finster.

We’ve already had a pinch of easy listening, a sprinkling of R&B and a dash of pure pop on the show tonight and next up is a dose of cutting edge electronic dance music to add to the mix courtesy of Underworld. Having crossed over into the mainstream consciousness via their No 2 hit “Born Slippy” from the Trainspotting soundtrack, there was much anticipation for the group’s next album release which arrived in 1999. “Beaucoup Fish” duly made No 3 in the charts selling 100,000 copies to date. It also generated three hit singles of which “Push Upstairs” was the biggest peaking at No 12. Whilst I’d enjoyed “Born Slippy” (who didn’t?), I wast on board for this much les accessible track I’m afraid. Far too heavy a sound for my tender ears. Let’s move on….

Which Rugrat character would they be? It’s Angelica again. There is an ‘underworld’ fan theory sometimes known as ‘creepypasta’ that suggests the characters are not actually alive but are figments of Angelica’s imagination. Furthermore the theory posits that Angelica is a neglected child with a drug addiction who imagines her friendships with the babies to cope with her lonely life and that the babies are dead or never existed in the first place. That’s sounds even heavier than “Push Upstairs”.

Houston…I have a problem….this is not right nor is it OK! This is the fourth time on the show for “It’s Not Right But It’s OK” by Whitney Houston and guess what? It’ll be on the running order for a fifth time in a month or so. And guess what again? Three weeks after that, her follow up single “My Love Is Your Love” will begin its run of three TOTP appearances! In the famous Apollo 13 aborted moon mission, said problem was a ‘Main B Bus Undervolt’ (wherever that was) but here it’s a Whitney H overload. She clearly was executive producer Chris Cowey’s ‘Greatest Love Of All”.

Which Rugrat character would they be? Tommy Pickles. As the show’s main protagonist, he appears in the highest number of episodes.

After two weeks at the top, Boyzone are no longer No 1 but, of course, that doesn’t stop them from appearing on the show again for the third week on the trot as this is the Chris Cowey era. However, make the most of them as there are only two more hits to come in this first era of the band as they would go on an extended sabbatical come the new millennium as solo careers and acting endeavours took over. For now though, it was their cover of “When The Going Gets Tough” that was commanding their attention and, having listened carefully to the climax of the song, it seems that whether you were Billy Ocean or in possession of a Dublin accent, there was no way of singing the line “going gets tough” without it sounding like “go and get stuffed”.

Which Rugrat character would they be? This is AI’s answer to that question:

Ronan Keating – Tommy Pickles: As the frontman and leader, Ronan fits the role of Tommy—the brave, optimistic leader of the group who guides everyone through adventures.
Stephen Gately – Chuckie Finster: With his sweet, sensitive, and endearing nature, Stephen matches Chuckie, the lovable, anxious worrywart who is loyal to his friends.
Keith Duffy – Phil DeVille: Known for his mischievous, energetic, and slightly chaotic personality, Keith fits the twin Phil.
Mikey Graham – Lil DeVille: Often providing a more thoughtful, yet still mischievous balance to the twins, Mikey fits Lil.
Shane Lynch – Angelica Pickles: With his tough-guy image, tattoos, and sometimes rebellious attitude in the early days, Shane fits the bossy, assertive, and rule-bending Angelica.

Right, who’s this? Why it’s Tina Cousins of course. No, she wasn’t a sister of ice skating champion Robin Cousins but that woman who sang with Sash! Remember her? No? Well, she was also on that ABBA medley hit alongside Steps, Cleopatra, Billie and B*Witched. Still no? If you haven’t placed her from those clues, I don’t think references to her solo career will help you, mainly because the hits under her own name (including this one“Killin’ Time”) sound just like that one she made with Sash! In fact, they sound like any other Sash! track to my untrained ears. They might have the requisite bpm to dance to in a club but could you listen to a whole album of it? Apparently not as Tina’s debut solo album only made it to No 50 in the UK charts though it was more popular in Scandinavia. Tina would have one more big hit (again with Sash!) in 2000 but continued to release music into the noughties and beyond and still makes regular PAs on the club circuit.

Which Rugrat character would they be? Well, Angelica is the cousin of Timmy Pickles but I’m going for a character called Tina Trousers who was a toy doll that appeared in one episode. Tina Cousins once dispensed with trousers altogether when performing that ABBA medley at the BRITS preferring instead to wear a silver catsuit.

And so we come to a piece of chart history. Two pieces in fact. By dint of going straight in at No 1 with their single “Blame It On The Weatherman”, B*Witched become the first band ever to have their first four singles debut at No 1. The record wouldn’t last long as those dastardly Westlife boys would equal that feat by the end of the year and break it within the first few months of 2000. However, I’m pretty sure that the couldn’t lay claim to that second chart record which was that this was the first time ever that siblings had taken over from each other at No 1. Yes, the chart baton was handed over by Shane Lynch of Boyzone to his twin sisters Keavey and Edele of B*Witched. I don’t recall a big fuss about this at the time but it was quite a story I guess.

Having released two frenetically paced songs as their first two singles and a ballad as their third, B*Witched ploughed a furrow down the middle with their fourth as “Blame It On The Weatherman” is a mid-tempo pop song with an almost acoustic feel that was pleasant but unspectacular to my ears. Given that its parent album had been out over five months by the time of its release, was it a surprise that it went straight to No 1? Maybe. This was the peak of the group’s success with no subsequent release (single nor album) even making the Top 3.

I clearly recall doing a big display for “Blame It On The Weatherman” in the Our Price shop I was working in at the time so I, at least, must have been expecting big sales. The other big release that week which got a similar sized display was “Strong” by Robbie Williams which would enter the charts at No 4 but for some reason was never featured on TOTP which strikes me as quite odd on reflection.

Which Rugrat character would they be? With twins in their line up, they have to be Phil and Lil DeVille.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Andy Williams	Music To Watch Girls By	Good song but no
2	Kele Le Roc	My Love	Nope
3	Steps	Better Best Forgotten	No
4	Underworld	Push Upstairs	I did not
5	Whitney Houston	It’s Not Right But It’s OK	Nah
6	Boyzone	When The Going Gets Tough	Not even for charity
7	Tina Cousins	Killin’ Time	Never
8	B*Witched	Blame It On The Weatherman	And no

Disclaimer

I make no claim to the rights of this show and all ownership and contents including logos and graphics belongs totally to the BBC or copyright holder(s).

All opinions on the music and artists featured are my own. Sorry if you don’t agree.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002qx5m/top-of-the-pops-26031999

TOTP 19 MAR 1999

Posted on 15 Days Ago by 80stastic

Two days before this TOTP was broadcast, the comedian and entertainer Rod Hull died in a tragic accident when trying to fix the TV aerial on his roof whilst watching a Manchester United match. A huge name in the 70s and early part of the 80s, he, along with his puppet partner Emu, were a massive part of the childhood of millions, mine included. His appearance on Parkinson in 1976 is part of TV folklore.

By the 90s though, his fame was in decline despite the odd TV commercial appearance and pantomime run. A brief revival of his name came via a regular sketch on Stewart Lee and Richard Herring’s comedy show Fist Of Fun:

When I first started working for Our Price in the early 90s, one of my colleagues used to run a ‘celebrity death list’ every new year asking his fellow co-workers for suggestions of famous people who might die in the next 12 months. It was a very macabre undertaking but we would all engage with it. One year, I suggested Rod Hull as I hadn’t see him on TV for a while and wondered if his health was maybe in decline. I was wrong at the time but a few years later my prediction would sadly come true. I wonder if there are any links to Rod in the acts featured in this particular TOTP?

Jamie Theakston is back as our host and we start with a new hit from Steps who were on a high from their recent No 1 “Tragedy” which remarkably after four and a half months, was still at No 20 in the charts as its follow up “Better Best Forgotten” debuted at No 2. I guess their record label Jive/EBUL couldn’t wait any longer before releasing the next single? Maybe they should have though as there’s never been a more aptly titled song. After distancing themselves from those ABBA comparisons with that Bee Gees cover, “Better Best Forgotten” landed them right back there. Maybe that was the plan though? I’m pretty sure that was mentor Pete Waterman’s strategy all along, to create an ABBA for the 90s.

Interestingly with this track, the lead vocals are shared out between Claire Richards, Faye Tozer and Lisa Scott-Lee on the verses. There was still no fear of H nor Lee Latchford-Evans of literally stepping up to the mike. Within a month, Steps would be back in the charts (“Better Best Forgotten” and unbelievably “Tragedy” were still also Top 40 residents) as part of the “Thank ABBA For The Music” medley featuring themselves, Tina Cousins, Cleopatra, B*Witched and Billie which did absolutely nothing to stem the tide of those ABBA comparisons.

Rod Hull connection: There’s only one and it’s going to sound slightly disrespectful – I’m assuming that there was a ladder with steps involved in the tragic accident that saw Rod fall from his roof trying to adjust his TV aerial. Sorry everyone – that comment really is better best forgotten.

The Beautiful South had been with us for a whole decade by 1999 and delivered not just six studio albums (and a hugely popular Best Of) but example after example of superbly crafted pop songs both lyrically and sonically. They would carry on for another eight years but their journeys up the charts would be much smaller in length from this point on. Indeed, “How Long’s A Tear Take To Dry?” would be their final Top 20 single. The third track lifted from their “Quench” album, it was one of those jaunty, nifty, exuberant pop songs but with a lyrical sting in the tail that they did so well in the tradition of “We Are Each Other”, “Don’t Marry Her” and “Perfect 10”. How can you not enjoy lines that reference Dr. Who’s TARDIS and rhyme ‘tonight’ with ‘shite’?*

*I’m sure Jacqui Abbott does actually sing the ‘s’ word in this performance despite the fact that the subtitles list that lyric as “not on your life”

Although we only get to see it on a screen in the background, the video for this one deserves a mention as it features the band as cartoon character versions of themselves in the style of Hanna-Barbera. Indeed, Paul Heaton is on record as saying that it was produced by the American animation studio. I especially liked the Hull (my home for the last 22 years) references incorporated into it such as The Grafton pub (Heaton lived at No 70 Grafton Street when he moved to Hull in 1983 to form The Housemartins and that was his local) and the iconic Hollywood sign becoming ‘Hullywood’.

Rod Hull connection: This one writes itself – it’s those Heaton/Hull links again.

Just like The Beautiful South, Roxette had been having hits in the UK since 1989 but also like The Beautiful South their commercial power was on the wane. The Swedish duo hadn’t had a Top 10 in this country since 1993’s “Almost Unreal” from the Super Mario Bros. soundtrack and of their last five singles released, only two had even made the Top 40. It was therefore a sizeable surprise when they returned in 1999 with a No 11 hit in “Wish I Could Fly”. The lead track from their “Have A Nice Day” album, it’s a huge, sweeping ballad with an orchestral backing but, just for the shits and giggles presumably, Per Gessle shoved a drum loop* into the mix.

*Actually, it was to see if the two elements could be combined effectively.

You know what, they kind of did mix with “Wish I Could Fly” being a half interesting listen (listen to your half I should maybe have said). It would prove to be Roxette’s last UK Top 40 hit – their joyride around the British charts was over.

Rod Hull connection: I think there’s another bad taste quip to be had here but I won’t go there. Instead, how about that the title of this hit is giving me very strong vibes about another 70s/80s entertainer with a puppet who is no longer with us…

In my mind, a part of 1999 will always belong to Travis who emerged from being just another run of the mill post-Britpop outfit to become one of the biggest bands in the country. How do they accomplish this feat? By releasing their second album “The Man Who” and the UK record buying public being powerless to resist its charms. OK, it wasn’t quite as simple as that but certainly the reaction to that sophomore album couldn’t have been predicted by the reception that their debut collection of songs that was “Good Feeling” had received. That’s not to say it didn’t sell. It did – ultimately achieving platinum status for 300,000 units shifted. It’s just that “The Man Who” saw that number and said “Hold my beer…”. Nine times platinum worth of sales later and having spent 134 weeks on the charts including 43 in the Top 10 and nine at No 1…well, you don’t need to be a maths genius to be able to see the difference.

Now, without wishing to adopt a sixth former / ‘I used to like them before they were big’ attitude, I think I do actually prefer their first album which I bought. That’s not to say I didn’t appreciate what came after it – there’s some cracking songs on “The Man Who” like “Turn”, “Driftwood” and this one “Writing To Reach You”. The album was released in June and built steadily on the back of its two trailing hit singles before exploding in the second half of the year and cleaning up at Christmas and spending five consecutive weeks at No 1 at the start of the new millennium. It was that festive sales period though that I’ll always remember. So fast was the album selling that the Our Price chain I was working for was struggling to keep up with demand. I can’t recall what the issue was, whether it was a pressing plant problem or something else but I have a memory of the buying department pulling out all the stops to get stocks of the album into the stores and back on the shelves. When the stock did arrive, I seem to remember that it had some odd promotional stickers on it as if it had been sourced from abroad. Whatever, it was gratefully received and made no difference to the punters wanting to buy it. I can’t recall who I heard this from (maybe an Area Manager) but I was definitely told that the chain had been three days from going to the wall over Christmas and much of its survival was down to the performance of “The Man Who”. I don’t know how true that last bit was but it has stuck with me all these years.

Enough talk of sales certifications and stock sourcing issues, what about the actual music? Lead singer and songwriter Fran Healy has publicly acknowledged that he stole the chords for “Writing To Reach You” from “Wonderwall” by Oasis – indeed, he references the track in his song’s lyrics and you can’t get much more public than that. 18 months after writing the song, Travis were supporting Oasis on tour and Noel Gallagher said to Healy as they came off stage “Nice chords mate”. For me, the plagiarism doesn’t detract from the quality of the tune though which is earnest yet melodic, yearning but knowing, familiar and intriguing. I wasn’t aware of this before writing this post but apparently this is one of the greatest ‘mash-ups’ of all time…

Healy looks so youthful in this performance with a twinkle in his eye and a look of Roddy Frame about him. He’s a lot more gnarled looking these days and why shouldn’t he be 27 years later.

Rod Hull connection: In 1982, DJ Dave Lee Travis won the ‘Pipe Smoker of the Year’ award. Rod Hull won it in 1993. Ahem.

It’s time for a medical update on Britney Spears and her knee is still causing her problems that are preventing her from being in the TOTP studio in person. As such, we’ll have to make do with another showing of that video for “…Baby One More Time”. In this personal message, she takes the opportunity to plug not just her single but new album of the same name which had just been released in the UK (it had already been available in America for a couple of months). It would do big business over here going four times platinum though it never quite made No 1. It would reside in the Top 20 for just under a year though only a third of that time was spent inside the Top 10. Its Wikipedia entry depicts two different album covers – one for the US release and the other being the international edition. The contrast between them is quite striking. The version we were all used to seeing in our record shops has Britney in a solemn pose with her clasped hands raised to her lips almost in prayer. Meanwhile, the US edition has her kneeling against an all pink background in which she looks much younger and seems to me to be an attempt to appeal to a teeny (maybe even weeny) bopper audience, building on that connection from her The All-New Mickey Mouse Club days. If so, the video for the single “…Baby One More Time” would blow any such association out of the water. The Britney Spears global promotion machine was moving through the gears and would bring her fame and fortune on an unprecedented scale for one so young but at what cost…?

Rod Hull connection: Emu had a track record of hitting people more than one time as Michael Parkinson famously found out.

There have been plenty of times when I’ve complained about the running orders on some of these TOTP repeats but so have you say this one features some pretty decent bands. We’ve already had Travis and The Beautiful South and in a while we’ll be seeing Manic Street Preachers but before them come REM. I’d long since failed to have any sort of focus on their output by this point and consequently must have let this single – “At My Most Beautiful” pass me by which is a shame as it’s really rather good. A piano led ballad that was written as an homage to the Beach Boys and presented as a gift to his “Pet Sounds” loving band mates, it’s widely regarded as the first straightforward REM love song. I think the sentiment behind that comment was that it wasn’t…well…’sentimental’ but a genuine expression of feelings. Certainly Michael Stipe took his time in writing “At My Most Beautiful” – he spent a year coming up with the verse so if longevity is any indicator of authenticity then that description of the song was valid. For his part, Stipe is on record as saying that he was fed up of writing ironic love songs by this point.

The single wasn’t quite the last release by REM for the 90s (there was a track from the Andy Kaufman biopic Man On The Moon starring Jim Carrey right at the end of 1999) but it’s peak of No 10 was a nice way to usher in the end of a decade which saw the band release five studio albums and cross from indie favourites into the mainstream and all the spotlight and expectation which came with that.

Rod Hull connection: None really other than a shared liking of acronyms. For REM read EBC – Emu’s Broadcasting Company which was on our TV screens from 1975 to 1980.

Just like REM, the Manic Street Preachers had also released five albums throughout the course of the 90s. The final of those was “This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours” which would provide them with four hit singles. “You Stole The Sun From My Heart” was the third of those and would give the band their seventh Top 10 hit of their career up to that point. When you consider that six of those came from their previous seven releases starting with “A Design For Life” in 1996 and that they’d only had one between 1991 and 1995 (and that was a cover version), it gives you some idea of how their career had transformed over the course of the decade. In many ways it mirrored REM in that they’d also made the switch (by design or not) to being a mainstream artist with the success of the “Everything Must Go” album after years of developing a fiercely loyal but contained fanbase. However, whereas REM seemed to have peaked commercially and be coming down the other side as the 90s were coming to an end, the Manics seemed to be entering their imperial phase. “This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours” gave them their first No 1 album and single and in the first few days of the new millennium, the standalone track “Masses Against The Classes” would provide a second No 1 single. Both bands have so far recorded 15 studio albums but whereas REM called it a day in 2011 and have yet to reverse that decision, the Manics are still going strong with their most recent album release being 2025’s “Critical Thinking”.

Rod Hull connection: Deeply tenuous this but in December 1998, whilst plugging their Fist Of Fun* live show at the Shepherds Bush Empire during an interview on Capital Radio with Chris Moyles, they said that they were better than the Lightning Seeds but not as good as the Manic Street Preachers.

*Fist Of Fun featured a Rod Hull imposter character remember.

Boyzone have matched the achievement of Britney Spears by staying at No 1 for more than a week with “When The Going Gets Tough”. Presumably the fact that it was the official Comic Relief song for 1999 and that the charity’s telethon event happened on the Friday before the chart was compiled cemented their position. Someone commented on line about this performance that, by this point, you could really tell that the guys in the band were struggling to cope with with what it meant to be a part of the Boyzone project. I can see what they meant. Look at the dead eyes on display. Shane Lynch would rather be anywhere in the world than in the TOTP studio performing a Billy Ocean cover, charity record or not. I said in the previous post that everyone except Ronan Keating and Stephen Gately seems to do very little on stage but maybe they had good reason – that they were miserable and couldn’t be arsed to put the effort in. We’ve all felt like that about our jobs at some point surely? What did they have to be pissed off about though ? They were wildly successful pin up pop stars after all. Well, I haven’t watched the documentary Boyzone: No Matter What but from the reviews that I have read about it, the revelations within it about how they were manipulated by manager Louis Walsh and his lack of loyalty towards his charges is shocking but not unexpected. I’ve always hated this bloke and the description of his portrayal in the film only serve to confirm my beliefs. He’s a total tosser – a disgraceful person. Look at this from The Guardian review of the documentary about his reaction to Stephen Gately coming out to the press apparently against his will:

“When he was 23, Gately came out as a gay man in the pages of the Sun – a massive deal, at that time, for a pop star who was adored and lusted after by millions of female fans. There is a sense that it was not his choice, and one of the most poignant, and telling, scenes in the whole documentary sees Keating, Walsh and Michelle Gately look at the front page splash that revealed the “news”. Even now, Keating is angry and upset about what happened, while Gately’s sister is clearly distressed. And Walsh? “I love it,” he says. “He got the front page.” The tabloids’ coverage of Gately’s death, meanwhile, just 15 years ago, was soaked in homophobic assumptions. It remains disgraceful today.”

Rebecca Nicholson, The Guardian, 02 Feb 2025

Walsh’s comment sums up his character – where’s his humanity? Given his actions and attitude, maybe the Boyzone lads did have genuine grievances.

Rod Hull connection: None but I wish Emu had given Louis Walsh the same treatment he subjected Michael Parkinson to.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Steps	Better Best Forgotten	Never
2	The Beautiful South	How Long’s A Tear Take To Dry?	Negative
3	Roxette	Wish I Could Fly	Nah
4	Travis	Writing To Reach You	No but I had the album I think
5	Britney Spears	…Baby One More Time	No
6	REM	At My Most Beautiful	I did not
7	Manic Street Preachers	You Stole The Sun From My Heart	Nope
8	Boyzone	When The Going Get’s Tough	And no

Disclaimer

I make no claim to the rights of this show and all ownership and contents including logos and graphics belongs totally to the BBC or copyright holder(s).

All opinions on the music and artists featured are my own. Sorry if you don’t agree.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002qx5k/top-of-the-pops-19031999

TOTP 12 MAR 1999

Posted on 20 Days Ago by 80stastic

At last a presenter who isn’t Jayne Middlemiss nor Jamie Theakston! Yes, we have a new presenter who is Gail Porter, someone who has had quite the life and career full of the highest highs and the lowest lows. Gail’s early CV entries included stints on various children’s TV shows before getting her big break on TOTP. She was also a model for magazines such as FHM and it was that part of her life which would result in one of the most infamous news stories and visual memories of the decade. Although it would raise her profile into the stratosphere, it would ultimately cause Porter far more harm than good. A couple of months after her TOTP debut, Gail would awake one morning in May 1999 to find her names in headlines though it wasn’t her head that the story concerned. A nude 60ft tall photograph of Porter was projected onto the Houses of Parliament organised by FHM magazine as part of a marketing campaign to promote their ‘100 sexiest women in the world’ poll. Gail had no idea what had been planned but received a backlash anyway as the perception that she was in on the stunt as a career move was propagated. The incident would lead to Gail not feeling able to leave the house and contribute to bouts of depression. She suffered from anorexia nervosa and was hospitalised before, in 2005, developing alopecia totalis which led to her losing all of her hair. Choosing to deal with her condition literally head on, she declined to wear hats or wigs and used her profile to become ambassador for the Little Princess Trust, a charity which provides wigs to children with hair loss. As if that wasn’t enough to deal with, her marriage (to Toploader guitarist Dan Hipgrave) broke down and she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and sectioned against her will for 17 days in 2011. In a painfully honest and insightful 2024 documentary called Being Gail Porter, she discussed her two decades of mental health struggles. Knowing all of the above, it’s hard to recall her as this fresh faced, young presenter. Let’s see how she did…

Well, Gail’s first line is about it being her first time and a request to please be gentle with her, a bit of sexual innuendo which feels unnecessary but possibly didn’t raise an eyebrow in the era of ‘lad culture’. We then move straight to our first performance which is…oh this is just getting silly now…a hit that was only just on last week’s show and was now coming down the charts. I know this was nothing new in the Chris Cowey era and that I’ve banged on loads about the practice of repeat showings of songs that were descending the Top 10 but this one has really pissed me off for some reason. Actually, not this one but FOUR songs that were on just seven days ago which are all back on the show. Wait a minute though, am I being unfair here? Having checked out that week’s chart on official charts.com, there’s not one song going up the charts! The whole Top 40 consists of either new entries or songs going down. What was the hell was this?! I guess it was another consequence of first week record company discounting as sales in the second week fell dramatically as the price of a single went up. OK, so were there any new entries that could have featured on the show instead of songs declining in popularity? Well yes, there were three entries inside the Top 10 which were never featured including hits from two of the biggest names in music – Madonna and George Michael! OK, they might not have been available for an in the studio appearance but were there no videos made to promote their singles? Well yes, there were – at least they are easily found on YouTube so was this Cowey’s stupid ‘no promos’ policy at work again?

For the record the first act in this TOTP is Cher with “Strong Enough” which is down from No 5 to No 8 in the charts. I’ve nothing else to say about this one other than that Cher was in the news this week for fluffing her lines at the Grammys when presenting Kendrick Lamar and SZA with an award though in her defence it didn’t seem to be all her own fault…

Gail Porter warns us that this next act’s last single stayed on the charts for three months hinting that the follow up may do the same. Did we heed Gail’s warning? No we did not as Vengaboys spent five weeks inside the Top 10 and two and a half months on the Top 40 with “We Like To Party! (The Vengabus)”. You know, the 90s have provided some awful years of music but I think 1999 might just prove to be the worst and this lot will have been one of the biggest contributing factors as to why. Using those exact same tinny, buzzing and downright annoying backing beats as featured on their first hit “Up & Down”, this was music in its most basic form. No, it wasn’t music, this was anti-music or some sort of tribal chant led opium for the masses causing the general public to lose its collective mind and taste to rush to their local record emporium to buy this colossal shit. “Pushing the boundaries of pop” says Gail by which I don’t think she meant carving out a new art form but shrinking the definition of what could reasonably be described as such. Just horrendous but worse was to come in the shape of two No 1 hits during the year for these absolute dolts. The Vengabus was indeed coming…for us all.

Now in previous posts I’ve stated how I should really explore Skunk Anansie’s back catalogue more based on some of their hits I wasn’t familiar with. However, this next one – “Charlie Big Potato” – has dulled my commitment to that endeavour as it’s far too heavy for my liking. I mean, it sounds like Metallica or someone. And it’s dark as well as heavy. The opening lyrics are “I awake from blood thick dreams” followed a bit later by “I awake, dry the scream, spit the vile breath, till my tongue bleeds”. Bloody hell! Skin’s almost demonic performance here certainly doesn’t add any levity to the whole experience with her seemingly on the verge of kicking out at the studio audience and her weird stage outfit of what seems to be a PVC jacket with dangling, massively oversized pieces of material (I’m not sure they count as sleeves) hanging from her arms. Are they meant to be wings? Is she meant to resemble a bat? The whole thing comes across as far too much for a mainstream pop music show and the aforementioned audience don’t seem to know how to react to what they are witnessing initially before adopting an ‘if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em’ approach and just going mental in the really loud bits. The floor managers seem to have run with the element of danger to the whole performance with police tape barriers skirting the stage. “Charlie Big Potato” was a big hit in Iceland which makes sense as the craziness of it puts me in mind of Björk. It was also used in the soundtrack to the deeply disturbing and unpleasant movie Hollow Man starring Kevin Bacon which again makes sense.

Another song going down the charts from No 3 to No 5 is next – “It’s Not Right But It’s OK” by Whitney Houston. This is the third time in a row this performance has been on the show. Week one was an ‘exclusive’ performance before the single was released, week two reflected its debut at No 3 and week three is it descending the charts albeit still remaining in the Top 5. Are all three appearances justified? I can make a case for the first two but surely the third is overkill? Whatever your own opinion on the matter, the upshot is that I have nothing else to say about this one. As a blogger, it’s not right…but it’s OK.

We arrive at the valedictory performance for a band who had eighteen Top 40 hits including a Christmas No 1 and of which only six failed to make the Top 10. A group who courted controversy and were allocated the role of the perceived rivals to the UK’s premier boy band of the 90s. A group who looked to have lost everything but who shortened their name and made one last (partially) successful grab for chart victory. It is, of course, ~~East 17…~~erm…E-17!

Having achieved a No 2 hit against the odds as a Tony Mortimer-less trio with their past single “Each Time”, Brian, Terry and John (thanks for the name checks Gail!) followed it with “Betcha Can’t Wait” which was more of a deliberate R&B sound which they’d plotted without their former chief songwriter. However, whilst I’d unexpectedly appreciated “Each Time”, this one was pure parody. All the same soul stylings were there but the lyrics were laughable. Witness:

“I’m gonna touch you in the right spot baby….Betcha can’t wait, betcha can’t stop…Can’t stop thinking ’bout my love rock, baby come on”

Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Brian Lee Harvey / Terence Mark Coldwell / John Darren Hendy / Mark Reid / Jonathon Lesley Beckford / Ivor Paul Reid
Betcha Can’t Wait lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Ltd., Strongsongs Ltd.

“Touch you in the right spot”?! “My love rock”?! This performance is almost like a Fast Show sketch but instead of ‘Jazz Club’ or ‘Indie Club’ they’d turned their attention to R&B and given us ‘Bump ‘n’ Grind Club’. And check out the other two’s (forgotten their names already – where’s Gail when you need her?) ridiculous dance moves! Like I said pure parody. Compare this nonsense to such gems as “Deep” and “It’s Alright”. There is no comparison. What a said way to bow out for the lads who were straight outta Walthamstow.

Two more hits now which were also on only last week starting with “Just Looking” by Stereophonics. As with Whitney earlier, I haven’t got much else to say about this one except to note that their bass player was recreating a look first popularised on the show by Sandie Shaw and her barefooted performances. However, if you’re wanting a band to band comparison, check out Duran Duran’s guitarist Andy Taylor in this clip of them playing “Hungry Like The Wolf”. What happened to his shoes? I don’t know but if you watch him closely, he does seem to be rather out of it like he was in another world. Planet earth to Andy…Is there something I should know?

Also just like Whitney Houston, this is the third time for Blur on the show with “Tender”. Come on Cowey, what do you think I’ve still got left to say about this one?! OK, how about a shout out to the London Community Gospel Choir who also featured on this track. Founded in 1982, look at this list of artists with whom the have either performed or recorded:

George Michael and Liza Minnelli at The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert
Madonna at Live 8 in Hyde Park
Eric Clapton in Hyde Park
Kylie Minogue in Hyde Park
Blur (again) at the 2012 BRITS
The 1975 at the 2017 and 2019 BRITS
Pink! at the 2019 BRITS
They recorded a version of the OutKast hit “Hey Ya!” with Razorlight (the B-side to their single “Vice”)
They recorded with Will Young on his debut album “From Now On”
They provided backing vocals on Erasure’s self-titled 1995 album
They featured on Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds 2005 double album “Abattoir Blues/The Lyre Of Orpheus”
They also performed on the songs “Don’t Get Lost in Heaven” and “Demon Days” on the Gorillaz’ “Demon Days” album
They have also recorded with
Paul McCartney, Elton John, Westlife, Elkie Brooks and Tori Amos amongst others

Blimey! Or should I say Hallelujah!

So the halting of the run of one week wonder No 1s didn’t last long did it? Britney Spears has been toppled after just fourteen days at the top of the charts by the 1999 Comic Relief single recorded that year by Boyzone. For the third time in a row we got a pretty straight run through of a song that wasn’t written with the intention of being funny nor that had extra comedic lines thrown into the mix by the performers over a well known hit. To break that down further, ever since its inception in 1986, the established choice was either a cover version played for laughs:

Cliff Richard and The Young Ones – “Living Doll”
Mel & Kim (Mel Smith & Kim Wilde) -“Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree”
Bananarama & Lananeeneenoonoo – “Help!”
Mr. Bean & Smear Campaign feat. Bruce Dickinson – “(I Want to Be) Elected”

Or an original song written to be intentionally funny (I’m not sure the writers always succeeded):

Hale & Pace – “The Stonk”
Right Said Fred – “Stick It Out”
Pet Shop Boys – “Absolutely Fabulous”

Then came “Love Can Build A Bridge” by Cher, Neneh Cherry, Chrissie Hynde and Eric Clapton in 1995 which was a cover of an original song by country music duo The Judds. Two years later, no song was specifically written nor covered for the campaign but the Spice Girls agreed that all royalties for their double A-side single “Mama / “Who Do You Think You Are” would go to the charity. And then there was Boyzone who did a faithful version of Billy Ocean’s 1986 No 1 “When the Going Gets Tough” which I didn’t particularly like first time round so Ronan and the lads take on it was never going to win me over, charity record or not. Watching this back, I’m struck again by how little the guys who weren’t either Keating nor Stephen Gately actually did. In this one, they’re tasked with a bit of finger clicking and some shadow boxing to match the staging theme for the performance and that’s about it. That staging with the boxing backing dancers gives the whole thing a very 80s feel. I’m thinking of this perhaps..

P.S. A few people on line noted an unlikely link between “When the Going Gets Tough” and “We Like To Party! (The Vengabus)” by Vengaboys. Give up? They both have near identical opening lines – “I got something to tell you” in the former and “I’ve got something to tell ya” in the latter. Then in the third line they both share a similar theme – Ronan Keating sings “I’m gonna put this dream in motion” whilst whoever the Vengaboys ‘vocalist’ is gives us the line “Gonna put some wheels in motion”. Note to arresting officer – add plagiarism to the Vengaboys charge sheet for crimes against music.

As for Gail Porter, she did pretty well I think. All power to you Gail, a quite remarkable person. We’ll see plenty more of her (ahem) in future 1999 TOTP repeats.

Order of appearance	Artist	Tilte	Did I buy it?
1	Cher	Stong Enough	Nah
2	Vengaboys	We Like To Party! (The Vengabus)	Never
3	Skunk Anansie	Charlie Big Potato	No
4	Whitney Houston	It’s Not Right But It’s OK	I did not
5	E-17	Betcha Can’t Wait	Nope
6	Stereophonics	Just Looking	No but I had the album
7	Blur	Tender	See 6 above
8	Boyzone	When the Going Gets Tough	Not even for charity

Disclaimer

I make no claim to the rights of this show and all ownership and contents including logos and graphics belongs totally to the BBC or copyright holder(s).

All opinions on the music and artists featured are my own. Sorry if you don’t agree.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002qlxz/top-of-the-pops-12031999

TOTP 05 MAR 1999

Posted on 22 Days Ago by 80stastic

Three days before this TOTP aired, the singer Dusty Springfield passed away aged just 59 from breast cancer. My Dad saw her folk-pop trio The Springfields back in the early 60s but I wasn’t really aware of Dusty until I started taking a real interest in pop music around 1983. By that point, her career was totally in reverse with no Top 10 hits since 1968 and just one minor Top 40 chart entry throughout the whole of the 70s. Her 60s glory days seemed a long time ago. An attempted comeback in 1985 with the single “Sometimes Like Butterflies” (which I’d quite enjoyed) failed to restore her fortunes despite an appearance on Wogan when it peaked at No 83. And then, just two years later, enter the Pet Shop Boys and a career resurrection via her part in their No 2 hit “What Have I Done To Deserve This” and a Top 20 album of her own in the silver disc achieving “Reputation”. She would release just one more studio album in her lifetime (the commercially overlooked “A Very Fine Love”) but her profile was maintained via a couple of Best Of collections with 1994’s “Goin’ Back” making the UK Top 5. Talking of going back, let’s revisit this TOTP episode from 1999 and see if there’s any sign of a connection to Dusty…

Jamie Theakston is our host (boo!) and we start with the No 2 record “Tender” by Blur. This appears to be just a repeat showing of the ‘exclusive’ performance from the other week prior to the single’s release and we get the whole 4:30 radio edit version which seems quite generous. Expectations were that it would go straight in at the top of the charts (I fully expected it to). After all there’d been a new No 1 every week for the first nine weeks of the year so far. And it was the band’s first new material for two years and it was something of an anthem. However, the power and pull of Britney Spears and “…Baby One More Time” would not be denied a second week at the summit and Blur had to be content with the runners up spot. Apparently it was a close (ish) run thing. The two singles had been neck and neck for most of the week but Britney would pull away over the weekend and would sell 55,000 more copies than Blur in the final reckoning. Still, “Tender” did outsell just about every other No 1 up to this point in the year and, perhaps more importantly, parent album “13” would spend two consecutive weeks at the top on its way to achieving platinum level sales in the UK.

Can I just say that Damon Albarn looks perhaps the coolest he ever did in this performance with his tousled hair, shades and Fred Perry shirt. Compare that with his look in the video for 1991’s breakthrough hit “There’s No Other Way”. Dearie me.

Dusty Springfield connection: The aforementioned Pet Shop Boys who resurrected Dusty’s career also did remixes of Blur’s 1994 hit “Girls & Boys”.

Next up is a singer who was a peer of Dusty Springfield and, rather incredibly, was still having hit singles in 1999. And not just hit singles but the biggest one in the UK in 1998. So how do you follow up such a success? Well, if you’re Cher, you just repeat the exact same formula. At least, that’s how I remembered it; that “Strong Enough” was just a carbon copy of “Believe” but listening to it now, it’s clear that rather it was more trying to be “I Will Survive Mk II”. I mean, it’s not a million miles away from being “Believe Mk II” either but “Strong Enough” had more of a disco feel to it with some definite 70s sonic stylings thrown into the mix and, of course, it had the same lyrical subject matter. Given the status of “I Will Survive” and Cher’s standing amongst the LGBTQ+ community and that “Believe” had brought her to a new audience within said community, it made perfect sense to release “Strong Enough” as the follow up single.

Watching this performance back, all the backing dancers positioned in straight lines behind Cher make it seem like a fitness video. Has Cher ever done a fitness video?

*checks internet*

Yes, she did two in the early 90s called “A New Attitude” and “Body Confidence”. Well, had she ever made a third then she could have used this routine in it. “Strong Enough” couldn’t hope to match the success of “Believe” but it was a Top Ten hit around the world and was a No 1 on the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart so not quite strong enough but not a 10 stone weakling either.

Dusty Springfield connection: Both emerged as significant female artists in the 1960s, both are celebrated as camp icons and both have recorded versions of “You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me” which was a UK No 1 hit for Dusty in 1966 and appeared on Cher’s album “Chér” also from 1966.

Another performance we’ve seen before next as we get The Corrs and the rereleased “Runaway” just seven days after it was last on the show and despite the fact they it had dropped from No 2 to No 6 this week. Except…hold on…this isn’t the same performance…is it? They’ve all got the same outfits on but Caroline, the drummer, is playing the piano in the first appearance and it’s a more acoustic version of the song and in the second show she’s back on the drums. What gives? I can only assume that they recorded two versions whilst they were in the studio that day. Why did they do that? To diversify the promotion of the single? Both the Tin Tin Out remix and the album version were on the 1999 CD single release so maybe they were trying to cover all bases of appeal? Maybe the BBC wanted to stockpile their archives? Who knows? Either way, it didn’t stop the single from descending the charts albeit at a steady rate.

Dusty Springfield connection: According to Sharon Corr, her parents listened to a lot of Dusty Springfield (along with Burt Bacharach and The Carpenters) which served as the soundtrack to her early childhood. Also, Dusty’s parents were both Irish just as the Corrs family are.

Jamie Theakston can’t help himself making a comment about The Corrs (“Runaway. That’s The Corrs. You wouldn’t really would you?”) before he does that thing all the presenters were doing around this time that was clearly a new innovation by executive producer Chris Cowey – walking into the backstage area and introducing the next act who were to be found on a TV screen not on stage. Well, I mean they were on a stage but not actually sharing the same physical space as the presenter if you see what I mean. I’m guessing that many of these performances were being recorded separately from the host’s time in the studio because of scheduling issues? Having said that, there is a studio audience present so there as a certain amount of joining the dots going on. In the old days, unless a video was being shown, it seemed like one big shot jumping from presenter to artist and then back to the host to introduce the next act. This had the feel of lots of clips needing to be edited together neatly so as not to see the seams hence these rather clunky backstage segues.

Anyway, enough of the technical stuff, back to the music – who were the next artist on? Well, it’s The Cardigans and their hit “Erase/Rewind”. Now I could have sworn that this follow up to “My Favourite Game” was released much closer to its predecessor but the time elapsed between the two was four months. Presumably their record label didn’t want it swallowed up in the mad dash that was the Christmas selling period. The other thing I could have sworn was that it was better than this. I mean, I shouldn’t be complaining about it when compared to the rest of the crud in the charts but it did disappoint slightly on re-listening to it. Just ever so slightly underwhelming. It certainly helped reactivate sales of parent album “Gran Turismo” propelling it into the Top 10 after spending the first four months of its chart life outside of the Top 20. This would pretty much be the peak of commercial success for The Cardigans, in the UK anyway*. One more Top 10 hit with Tom Jones doing a cover version of “Burning Down The House” by Talking Heads would follow later in 1999 and a No 31 hit in 2003 was it for chart singles action whilst their two albums released subsequently to “Gran Turismo” gained hardly any sales traction.

*In their home country of Sweden, the band continued to rack up No 1 albums and Top 10 singles.

Dusty Springfield connection: The band’s bassist Magnus Sveningsson participated in a tribute project to Dusty Springfield around 2007, where he played in a band for a live performance featuring songs like “If You Go Away”.

This post is all about female singers what with the Dusty Springfield theme, Cher and Britney Spears. Even two of the groups featured are fronted by women. Add to that list Whitney Houston who appears on the show two weeks on the run with “It’s Not Right But It’s OK”. With the single having entered the charts at No 3, I get why it’s featured but there were other new entries this week that could have been shown instead from Shawn Mullins, Kula Shaker, Sheryl Crow and…erm…Elton John and LeAnn Rimes…OK maybe not that last one!

Anyway, it’s Whitney who got the nod and perhaps rightly so if you read about the song’s legacy. It won a Grammy for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance and in 2019 it was certified platinum for sales of over a million copies in America. It regularly features highly in the various Best Of polls and just last year it was ranked the 45th Greatest LGBTQ Anthems of All Time with Billboard comparing it to…yes, Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” just as Cher’s “Strong Enough” was. Clearly the two were duking it out for the hearts of that particular community.

Dusty Springfield connection: Cissy Houston (Whitney’s mother) was a founding member of The Sweet Inspirations, a group that provided backing vocals for several of Dusty’s records, most notably on her acclaimed 1969 album “Dusty In Memphis” and her classic hit “Son Of a Preacher Man”.

With their last single “The Bartender And The Thief”, the Stereophonics took a significant step up the ladder of commercial popularity. No longer were they a band of minor to medium sized hits but a Top 5 artist. Follow up “Just Looking” would consolidate that position by being a No 4 chart hit. More than that though, it was a great advert for their sophomore album “Performance And Cocktails” which was released the Monday after this TOTP aired. It would go to No 1 and six times platinum in the UK. These boys really were big news. It remains their second biggest selling album after “Just Enough Education To Perform” I liked it enough for it to end up in my CD collection. “Just Looking” maybe wasn’t as rollickingly riotous as “The Bartender And The Thief” but it’s still a decent track worthy of repeated plays. However, I’d have to say I prefer “Just Lookin’” by The Charlatans as a song – that missing ‘g’ clearly making all the difference.

Dusty Springfield connection: Well this is tenuous in the extreme but…the Stereophonics only No 1 single is a track called “Dakota” and in January 2024, singer-songwriter Shelby Lynne performed a set dedicated to Dusty based on her 2008 tribute album “Just A Little Lovin’” at the Dakota Jazz Club in Minneapolis. Don’t like that? How about that Dusty once recorded the song “The Black Hills Of Dakota” from the film Calamity Jane? Oh suit yourselves!

Britney Spears is No 1 again with “…Baby One More Time” and has therefore achieved something that we were yet to see in 1999 – a record top the charts for more than seven days. Yes, it’s taken ten weeks but finally the constant conveyor belt of a different No 1 has ground to a halt. When you consider though that this was easily the best selling single of the year in the UK, could we have expected a longer ride in pole position? The timings within release schedules probably worked against Britney as in her third week in the chart she was up against that year’s Comic Relief single courtesy of the biggest boy band in the country at the time but even so. That chart conveyor belt would spring back into action though with another 14 No 1s spending a solitary week at the top meaning 22 out of 52 weeks of the year saw a different record at the top!

As for Britney, well I haven’t the time nor space to chronicle her career and personal struggles here but suffice to say she would have two more big UK hits before 1999 was out and followed that by starting the new millennium by topping our chart twice with consecutive singles. That’s two, not one more time.

Dusty Springfield connection: Dusty’s iconic hit “Son Of A Preacher Man” featured in the film Pulp Fiction and was included on its multi platinum selling soundtrack. In 2008, the film’s director Quentin Tarantino considered casting Britney Spears as the lead character Varla in a planned remake of the 1965 cult film Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! The project never materialised though.

We’re still not done with The Great British Song Contest entrants in the BBC’s quest to find a contestant to be the UK’s representative at 1999’s Eurovision but fear not for this is the last of the four finalists. Jay were a band not a singer who was one Jamie Callis seen here fronting the song “You’ve Taken My Dreams” and what an affront to musical taste it is. Dull doesn’t quite cover it – how about ‘insipid’? ‘Soulless’? ‘Banal’? I’ll go for plain old shite I think. Callis was an unemployed karaoke singer at the time of his 15 minutes of fame – I should have just used those three words as my review of this one. Jay came fourth out of four when The Great British Song Contest airedtwo days after this TOTP was broadcast.

Dusty Springfield connection: Surely there’s nothing?! OK, how about Laurie Jay who was the drummer with The Echoes who served as Dusty’s primary backing band for her live performances and several studio recordings during the peak of her early solo career from late 1963 to1966. Jay was a dedicated fan and associate of Dusty, even attempting to organize tribute events in her memory such as a star plaque in Los Angeles and a show at The Albert Hall in 2012.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Blur	Tender	No but I had the album
2	Cher	Strong Enough	No
3	The Corrs	Runaway	Negative
4	The Cardigans	Erase/Rewind	Nope
5	Whitney Houston	It’s Not Right But It’s OK	Nah
6	Stereophonics	Just Looking	See 1 above
7	Britney Spears	…Baby One More Time	I did not
8	Jay	You’ve Taken My Dreams	And pissed all over them – NO!

Disclaimer

I make no claim to the rights of this show and all ownership and contents including logos and graphics belongs totally to the BBC or copyright holder(s).

All opinions on the music and artists featured are my own. Sorry if you don’t agree

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002qlxx/top-of-the-pops-05031999

TOTP 26 FEB 1999

Posted on 25 Days Ago by 80stastic

It was remiss of me to not make reference in my last post to the mention host Kate Thornton made to the fact that the BRITS had just taken place that week back in 1999. I’ll make up for it now by having a look into what went down on the night. Well, not that much really by which I mean nothing explosively controversial compared to 1996 (the Jarvis Cocker / Michael Jackson incident), 1997 (Geri Halliwell’s Union Jack dress) and 1998 (Chumbawamba’s Danbert Nobacon pouring a jug of water over John Prescott). However, there were rumblings about one of the winners. Belle And Sebastian picked up the award for the Best British Breakthrough Act triumphing over the likes of Five, Steps, Billie Piper and Another Level. The award was sponsored by Radio 1 and voted for online by their listeners. The Glasgow indie pop outfit were surprise winners, so much of a surprise that a story ran in the papers the following weekend that the vote had been rigged with students of two specific universities encouraged by the band to vote for them. Steps impresario Pete Waterman was so incensed (presumably that his red hot charges had lost) that he called for an investigation but nothing came of the conspiracy story and Belle And Sebastian kept their award. Robbie Williams was the big winner on the night though with three awards whilst Natalie Imbruglia also took home two. I wonder if anybody on this TOTP also benefitted from the BRITS…

First up are The Corrs who were big winners at the BRITS picking up the Best International Group gong ahead of the likes of REM no less. Hoping to cash in on that award were their record label Atlantic with a new single and when I say new I actually mean old. “Runaway” was the group’s debut single in 1995 which missed the Top 40 by nine places when first released and was from their first album “Forgiven, Not Forgotten”. Having already completely plundered sophomore collection “Talk On Corners”, Atlantic turned their attention to that debut album and single. As with their No 3 hit “What Can I Do”, “Runaway” was given the Tin Tin Out remix treatment resulting in the group’s then biggest hit single as it debuted at No 2. Just to ensure they were adhering to the completely cynical record label image, they included it in a special edition version of “Talk On Corners”.

Having listened to both the original and the remixed version, I can’t hear that much difference between the two or maybe my ears just aren’t sufficiently highly tuned for that level of discernment? The group performed “Runaway” at the BRITS so it was always clear that the intention was to strike whilst they were hot (as it were) with a flurry of releases to kept their profile high and momentum going.

I should say that our host this week is Jayne Middlemiss who makes a comment about “your Dad’s and your brother’s blood pressure calming back down to normal” after watching The Corrs implying that they’d maybe got over-excited a tad. Now isn’t that putting filth into their minds Jayne and didn’t somebody else say a similar thing about The Corrs?*

*It’s not the inappropriateness of David Brent’s comments which are awful that makes this scene but actually Tim’s look to camera that gets me every time

Another rereleased single making it big second time around now as NSYNC make their UK bow. Well, they had visited our Top 40 once before 18 months prior but in the most fleeting of ways (one week at No 40) so I’m not counting that. When originally released, “I Want You Back” only made No 62 but it crashed straight into the Top 5 in 1999. Now, there two inescapable talking points that have to be mentioned when discussing NSYNC:

The comparisons to Backstreet Boys
Justin Timberlake

Let’s address them head-on then. Firstly, maybe if they hadn’t been from America, maybe if there hadn’t been five of them and maybe if, you know, they hadn’t sounded exactly the same as the Backstreet Boys, then maybe those comparisons wouldn’t have been made. Secondly, is it just me or has Justin Timberlake always had problem hair?

Their performance here is nauseating. They don’t so much dance as walk around a bit and then perform backflips. And did they really need shirts with the number 5 on them telling us there were indeed five of them perhaps or that they are at No 5 in the charts? If they’d been called, I don’t know, Five maybe then it might have been justified. Timberlake would of course go on to solo superstardom after starting out on Disney’s The All New Mickey Mouse Club show. Improbably, another ex-Mickey Mouser would do exactly the same and will be along in this same show a bit later…

Although she wasn’t a winner the next artist was nominated for a BRIT award in the category of International Female Solo Artist losing out on the night to Natalie Imbruglia. I think I might have been a tad surprised at the time that Lauryn Hill didn’t walk off with that particular gong based on the sales of her solo album “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” which we sold loads of in the record shop in the Our Price store in Altrincham where I was working – clearly she spoke to the white, middle class teenagers of that particular market town that lies within the historic country boundaries of Cheshire. Anyway, “Ex-Factor” (see what she did there?) was the second single from that album following “Doo Wop (That Thing)” which had been an American No 1 as was the album – Hill was the first female rapper in history to debut atop both charts. I couldn’t recall how “Ex-Factor” went and wasn’t particularly expecting to like it but I was pleasantly surprised as it’s a very melodic, soul ballad with enough edge to it to make it stand out. It would peak at No 4 in the UK charts.

Now, what’s the connection between Lauryn Hill and the last act NSYNC? Yes, it’s Justin Timberlake of course. According to Wikipedia, a stripped down rendition of the song was featured in a medley performed by his backing singers during his 2018 The Man In The Woods Tour. Just a word of congratulations to Jayne Middlemiss on her intro for his one (or to whoever wrote the script) – “It’s not Cypress, it’s not Dru, it’s not even Katy…it’s Lauryn Hill”. Nice work.

As much as Belle And Sebastian winning the British Breakthrough Act award was a bit of a surprise, if the next artist had even been nominated in the category it would have been a seismic shock. Lucid had clocked up one Top 10 hit with 1998’s “I Can’t Help Myself” but even allowing for that, them winning a BRIT gong was as likely as Robbie Williams not winning one. Still, their No 14 follow up hit “Crazy” did earn them a place on the TOTP running order and a chance to perform for the watching TV audience at home. I’m not sure how big said audience was at this point in the show’s history nor how many viewers the BRITS pulled in but those of us working in record shops still took note of who was on TOTP when it came to predicting singles sales and how much stock to order.

There’s not much info on Lucid online but what little I did find described them as being of an electronic /dance / trance persuasion which I guess I can hear although there does seem to be an almost heavy rock element to it as well which is further highlighted by the presence of real instruments in this performance. It also does sound very derivative and unoriginal at the same time. Not a very satisfying nor lucid definition really. They would have one more hit – a version of Judy Tzuke’s “Stay With Me Till Dawn” before Lucid made like a loose lid and fell off the music industry jar of hits.

“Now we’ve had loads of letters to see this next performance again” Jayne Middlemiss tells us in her next intro. Letters?! It’s easy for those of us of a certain age to forget and hard to imagine for the Generation Z-ers but we didn’t all used to have the internet and digital methods of communication available to us at our fingertips (or thumb tips maybe). Even so, I’m not convinced that loads of viewers were writing into the BBC begging for a particular TOTP performance to be shown again, even if said performance was by Lenny Kravitz who was “sex on legs” according to Jayne. In fairness, he does look pretty cool though not as cool as his drummer and her magnificent, towering Afro. As for featuring the clip again, chances are, as last week’s No 1, executive producer Chris Cowey would have shown “Fly Away” again anyway.

When it comes to Whitney Houston, a bit like Kylie, there’s lots of different versions of her depending upon which era of her career you’re talking about. There’s the smooth love song chanteuse of “Saving All My Love For You”, the perfect pop singer of “I Wanna Dance With Somebody”, the power balladeer of The Bodyguard but by the late 90s she had turned to R&B and hip-hop for the sound of her fourth studio album “My Love Is Your Love”. Given that she’d spent most of the 90s being a film star with her name also all over the associated soundtrack albums, was this an attempt to realign herself as a singer first and foremost by making an album that tapped into the dominant sound of the latter part of the decade? Maybe. Maybe not. Whitney had already strayed down that road with her last studio album completely under her own name, 1990’s “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight” which had garnered mix reviews. “My Love Is Your Love” would be much better received and with the sales to back up its praise and yet its chart life started out in quite a minimal way. Released quietly (and perhaps unwisely) over the 1998 Christmas period, it didn’t really have a lead single to promote it. Yes, there had been that duet with Mariah Carey but that was from the soundtrack to the DreamWorks animated film The Prince Of Egypt and was seemingly just tacked onto “My Love Is Your Love”. As a result the album initially made only a minor splash in the UK charts, debuting at No 27 and then spending a couple of months hopping around the lower ends going as low as No 71. Then came what many saw as the first official single for the album – “It’s Not Right But It’s OK” which would provide Whitney with her highest charting single in the UK since “I Have Nothing” made the Top 3 six years earlier. And this is where the BRITS connection comes in as Whitney performed the track at the awards show to a rapturous reception. Ah, is that why it was released so much later than the album? So that she could promote with a headlining performance at a high profile, televised event? Maybe. Anyway, off the back of the single’s success, the album would ultimately go Top 5 and achieving three times platinum sales.

As for the song itself, it’s not really my thing/thang but I can appreciate that it’s a well executed R&B dance track with lyrics about defiantly telling an unfaithful lover to pack their bags. Given their tumultuous relationship many in the press speculated on whether it was about Whitney’s husband Bobby Brown. I’m pretty sure much more of a fuss would have been made about an in person appearance by Whitney Houston on the show back in the day but I guess things change quickly in the world of popular music and maybe her light wasn’t shining as brightly as it once had but the “My Love Is Your Love” album would see Whitney stake a claim as one of its biggest names again.

An absolutely iconic song next (yes it is, whether you like it or not) and a chart munching, sales crunching commercial juggernaut to boot. Once in a while, a single would come along that could never be anything but huge such was the buzz about it. I’m thinking “Killing Me Softly” by the Fugees, “MMMBop” by Hanson and “Don’t Speak” by No Doubt. That sort of thing. The buying department at the Our Price chain for whom I worked would send round a memo for these titles saying how the predicted sales of them were so massive that they’d had to order in extra quantities for every store to meet initial demand but also warning that we would have to monitor the single very closely for fear of selling out. “…Baby One More Time” by Britney Spears was definitely one that also needed watching closely.

Originally offered to the Backstreet Boys, TLC and Five (really?), they all turned down the opportunity to record the song leaving the path open for that other young star of Disney’s The All New Mickey Mouse Club show I referred to earlier to prove them all wrong by taking it to No 1 just about everywhere in the world. Why was it so successful? Well, it’s an extremely accessible pop song with hooks a plenty and some very convincing vocal styling from Spears for one so young. It’s also got that creeping backbeat that made it stand out from any other pop/dance tunes of the time. It also had that element of controversy with that chorus “Hit me baby one more” which label Jive were so concerned about that they changed the track’s original title to omit the first two words.

Then of course there’s that video which we get to see here and which is trailed by Britney doing a video message explaining that she can’t be in the TOTP studio because she’s hurt her knee. Apparently, a lot of the elements that made it so daring and controversial were down to Spears herself. She pitched the concept of the school setting to video director Nigel Dick after rejecting his original space themed idea and it was also Britney who had the idea of the knotted shirt look that sparked so much outrage. I once attended a guitar class and one of the songs we were learning was “..Baby One More Time”. Our teacher asked us to listen to the track before the next lesson to which one of my fellow students said “Well, the blokes here can’t watch the video, we’re not allowed” meaning that he believed that society had decreed that any man watching the video would be judged and not in a good way. Living in the times that we currently do, I can’t decide whether it would still be considered that way or not. Would it be seen as small fry in an Epstein files world or is it part of the problem? I don’t really want to pursue that line of enquiry any further than that. What I will say is that it’s a very impactful video which earned three nominations in the MTV Video Music Awards. Although, she didn’t feature in the 1999 BRITS, the following year she was nominated in the categories of Best International Female Solo Artist and Best International Breakthrough losing in both categories to Macy Gray. As for “…One More Time”, it would sell 463,000 copies in its first week of release easily dwarfing the commercial performance of any other No 1 single of 1999 so far. The bods in that buying department at Our Price knew what they were talking about.

We still haven’t yet finished with this Great British Song Contest malarkey to find the UK entrant for Eurovision so here’s the third of the four finalists Alberta with a song called “So Strange”. This one at least try to do something different from the safe pop/soul song template delivered by eventual winners Precious by offering us a reggae-lite tune. It puts me in mind of the 1985 hit “Girlie Girlie” by Sophia George which is no bad thing. I also quite like the way the songwriters tried to cover all cases by having part of the track sung in French. Cynical? Maybe but again at least they were trying to do something different. Alberta would come second to Precious which Wikipedia informs me was the second time she failed to be the UK Eurovision entry at the final hurdle having come second in 1998. Oh well. As Johnny Logan once sang, “What’s Another Year”.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	The Corrs	Runaway	Negative
2	NSYNC	I Want You Back	Never
3	Lauryn Hill	Ex-Fator	Didn’t happen
4	Lucid	Crazy	Nope
5	Lenny Kravitz	Fly Away	No
6	Whitney Houston	It’s Not Right But It’s OK	Nah
7	Britney Spears	…Baby One More Time	I did not
8	Alberta	So Strange	And no

Disclaimer

I make no claim to the rights of this show and all ownership and contents including logos and graphics belongs totally to the BBC or copyright holder(s).

All opinions on the music and artists featured are my own. Sorry if you don’t agree

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002q94h/top-of-the-pops-26021999

TOTP 19 FEB 1999

Posted on 28 Days Ago by 80stastic

After the deluge of boy bands in the early 90s and then the gender switch to all girl groups in the mid to later years, suddenly, right in the death throes of the decade, another movement emerged which infiltrated both sexes – boy bands and girl groups who could play their own instruments! We get to see two examples from the first category on this particular TOTP and in many ways it was a blueprint/warning (delete as appropriate) for what was to come in the new millennium with the likes of Busted and McFly but we’ll get to all that later.

Kate Thornton is our host tonight and we start with last week’s No 1 – “Maria” by Blondie. In the first eight charts of 1999, we had eight different No 1s. This was a time when record company first week discounting and the record buying public’s awareness of the practice met dead on causing huge sales for new releases in their first seven days in the shops. The impact of this was displayed in this weekly changing of the guard at the very top of the charts. In my view, it did undermine the integrity of the charts and it also made reordering of new singles in that first week of release very tricky for those of us working in record shops at the time. Punters were wise to the fact that the CD single was only £1.99 for the first seven days and would rise to £3.99 when it entered the chart the following week and so unnatural buying patterns were created. The trick was to never sell out during the discounted period but not have loads of stock left over when its price rose. It wasn’t always that easy to pull off.

Anyway, Blondie had secured a No 1 with “Maria” before falling to No 2 and this meant that they’d had chart toppers in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. Not a unique feat but impressive all the same. Debbie Harry was 53 at this point. Twenty-seven later and she is still performing live and recording with her band in 2026 aged 80! A new album called “High Noon” is scheduled for release later this year.

So to this new movement of boy bands (and girl groups) who played their own instruments…I say ‘new’ but perhaps the first example and OGs of the genre came two years before with the emergence of Hanson. The three brothers were only 11, 14 and 16 years old when they hit with the irresistibly catchy “MMMBop” and yet they actually played on the record (at least that’s what their publicity machine told us anyway). In the wake of that success, it seemed that every pop music record label was on the look out for the next Hanson and in Next Of Kin, Universal thought they’d found the UK version. This lot really were following the Hanson blueprint – three brothers who were aged 13 to 18 who played guitar, bass and drums who had a hit that was half pop song, half ear-worm. Hell, they even had the Hanson floppy hair down to a tee!

Their backstory was that they were spotted by the manager of the Musical Exchanges music shop in Birmingham who put them directly in touch with Universal who signed them immediately and whisked them off on the Smash Hits tour and then as support act for Boyzone. It can’t have been that easy can it? Their debut single was “24 Hours From You” and it was ridiculously similar to “MMMBop”. The vocals in it were almost exactly the same. Its peak of No 13 was a reasonable start to their pop career but when follow up “More Love” peaked 20 places lower, the game was up before it had even started.

An attempt at gatecrashing the pop world again was made in 2013 when they successfully auditioned for the tenth series of the X Factor but they were rejected at the Bootcamp stage. Wikipedia tells me that they are still together but have renamed themselves as Essex County (they’re from Braintree) and changed their sound to alternative country. We’ll see another instrument playing boy band later in the show but not to be outdone, the girls would show their hand later in 1999 with the likes of Hepburn and Thunderbugs seeing chart action.

“Time now for something a tad more dangerous” says Kate Thornton in her intro to the next act. Who could she mean and was she right? Well, I guess compared to Next Of Kin then Unkle featuring Ian Brown could at least be considered as unsafe; after all, Brown had not long been released from Strangeways prison for a two month stretch for that air rage incident.

As for Unkle, all my hip colleagues at Our Price would have been into them and DJ Shadow who was a member of the electronic outfit at one point and gets his own mention in Thornton’s intro here (although as far as I can tell he was not officially credited on the single) and, in fact, anything released on their Mo’Wax label. Guess what though (and this will come as no surprise!)? I don’t like “Be There” at all. Not one little bit. Slow and lumbering, Brown’s deadpan, monotone, low register vocals didn’t help to raise my interest levels either. Maybe if I’d been achingly hip like some of my colleagues I’d have loved it but the truth is I’ve never been even half way hip. The other truth is that I don’t actually remember it. What the Hell was I doing all day in the record shop? Certainly not listening to any music it seems. Surely, given I was living in Manchester at the time, I should have recall of a hit featuring one of the city’s more famous sons? Bah. I might as well have been selling tins of baked beans! Anyway, I’m going to own my pop sensibilities and stand up proudly for them by stating that if I want to listen to a song called “Be There”, then this is what I would choose…

It’s that second example of an instrument playing boy band now as we are introduced to Canadian group The Moffats. This lot were four brothers (why were all these bands siblings?) but making them stand out was the fact that three of them were triplets with two of them identical twins. Unlike Next Of Kin, I do remember this lot mainly because there were two school girls who used to come into the Our Price where I worked in Altrincham who were crazy about them. I remember once I was late for work due to my bus not turning up and as I was in charge that day with the keys to the shop, we opened up late. Not my fault, it happens. However, it happened to be on the Monday The Moffats were releasing a single and these two girls wanted to be the first to get their hands on it. I think they’d cut school to come and buy it and so were waiting outside, giving me down the banks for not opening up on time as per our advertised hours. It was at this point that I developed a string dislike for The Moffats!

Anyway, “Crazy” was their first and biggest of two UK Top 40 hits peaking at No 16 (those sales to those two schoolgirls must have really helped!) and it’s a slightly more robust sound than Next Of Kin (it would have been hard not to be in fairness) but it was hardly offering anything new nor original. Banal lyrics and a ‘woah woah’ chorus and generic title. In fact, they didn’t seem blessed with creativity when it came to song titles. They also released singles called “Miss You Like Crazy”, “Girl Of My Dreams” and “I’ll Be There For You” (at least two of which have been also been the titles of big hits for other artists. Then there’s their image. Just like Next Of Kin, the lead singer and drummer have both copied the Hanson, slacker dude, long hairstyle whilst the two identical twins have rather sensibly gone for a shorter crop. What was it about these guys that those two school girls just couldn’t resist?! Despite Kate Thornton’s claim that we would all be screaming for them soon, The Moffats didn’t amount too much and although they are still together, haven’t released an album in over 25 years. I have no info on whether they liked to eat curds and whey nor whether they were scared of spiders.

Staying with Canadian bands, here’s Barenaked Ladies and their hit “One Week”. Having been in existence for over a decade and having already released three major label studio albums by this point, I’m willing to bet that most of us didn’t actually know much about this lot and their brand of alternative pop or ‘geek rock’ as some of the press labeled their sound. I know I didn’t. Sure, being employed in a record shop I might have come across their name but when it came to actually listening to them…well, as I’ve already established, I clearly wasn’t doing a lot of listening to any music much whilst at work.

Suddenly though, this mad track full of skittering energy and sounding like it had too many words to fit into its structure was everywhere. How had this happened to a band which if not a cult, were definitely on the fringes of the mainstream? Well, the band had promoted “One Week” hard in America by playing a series of radio station concerts which had resulted in massive airplay and, perhaps against all odds, a US Billboard Hot 100 chart topper!* No doubt that achievement would have meant a full on marketing drive on its UK release and sure enough, it debuted at No 5 over here.

*Rather poetically it would spend just one week at the top.

So that’s how it became a massive hit but what about the ‘why?’. OK so, firstly it has a killer chorus that could have been jarring against the overly verbose verses but actually works perfectly as a way of resolving all that wordplay. Ah yes, those words. Why were they full of pop culture references and whatever did it all mean? According to the band’s Ed Robertson, he’d worked out the track’s chorus but hadn’t a clue what to do about the verses until fellow band member Steven Page told him to just “Freestyle it”. And so Robertson did which means, I guess, that it was all made up nonsense with no meaning at all? Sometimes things just work though and it all hung together in a madcap display of improvisation. You do have to acknowledge the blending of the lyrics. My favourite rhyming couplet is this I think:

“Like Harrison Ford I’m getting frantic
Like Sting I’m tantric”

Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Ed Robertson
One Week lyrics © Wb Music Corp., Treat Baker Music Inc.

However, there’s loads more to admire. For example, name checking Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa, German orchestra leader and easy listening legend Bert Kaempfert and American teenage singer LeAnn Rimes in the same song takes a special kind of imagination. Sadly, the live vocals in this TOTP performance don’t quite do it justice.

The final reason for its success? Well, the UK charts have always been accommodating of a single that not a novelty but a bit out there. Off the top of my head there’s “Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm” by Crash Test Dummies, “Camouflage” by Stan Ridgeway, “O Superman” by Laurie Anderson and later on in these 1999 repeats we’ll be hearing Baz Luhrmann’s “Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen)”. “One Week” could find a place quite comfortably in such a list. Barenaked Ladies would manage one more minor UK chart entry but are still together recording new material with their last album being 2023’s “In Flight”.

An exclusive preview of a massive song next. Literally epic. Or just overly long depending on whether you like it or not I guess. Having emerged bruised from 1995’s Battle of Britpop, Blur regrouped and came back with a platinum selling No 1 album and two of their most iconic singles in “Beetlebum” and “Song 2”. In the meantime, it was their nemesis Oasis who had suffered the brickbats and barbed criticisms of their third album “Be Here Now” and promptly disappeared for the rest of the decade. The field, therefore, was clear for Blur to unleash their sixth studio album without the omnipresence of the Gallaghers and the comparisons that had tripped them up in the past. The lead single was “Tender”, a 7:40 long lament to Damon Albarn’s broken relationship with girlfriend Justine Frischmann of Elastica. With its hopeful refrain of “Come on, come on, come on, get through it” and a gospel choir backing, it gave off heavyweight vibes literally on first hearing. And yet, it also had that lo-fi guitar opening – it was a masterclass in how to slowly build a song. I was convinced it would be the band’s third No 1 single and it would have been but for the commercial wrecking ball that was Britney Spears’ “…Baby One More Time”. Despite having to settle for No 2, its first week sales of 176,000 copies was more than many actual No 1 singles that year. Whatever its numbers said, it was a demonstrably braver and more interesting direction than the one taken by Oasis as the end of the 90s came into view.

Just as we started the show with an act that had just secured an unexpected No 1 single seemingly out of the blue in Blondie and “Maria”, this week’s chart topper was also a surprise – well, it blindsided me anyway. My first engagement with Lenny Kravitz came courtesy of his 1991 album “Mama Said” (I’d been blissfully unaware of his debut collection “Let Love Rule”) during my early days of working for Our Price. I’d really enjoyed that album with tracks like “Fields Of Joy”, “Stand By My Woman” and hit single “It Ain’t Over ‘Til It’s Over” all impressing me. I couldn’t really get into his next album “Are You Gonna Go My Way” mostly because I wasn’t that taken by its hit single title track and after that I completely lost sight of him. Then, in 1999, he was back and how. “Fly Away” was the third single from his fifth studio album “5” and, despite the first two singles taken from it failing to pierce the UK Top 40, it soared straight to the top of the charts in week one of its release. How had this happened? It’s not that big a mystery really – behold the everlasting power of a song being used to soundtrack a TV advert:

Yes, a car advert for the Peugeot 206 was enough to give Lenny his first and only UK No 1. Obviously it wasn’t the first time we’d seen this phenomenon in action but it sure was effective. A last minute addition to the album, Kravitz had originally thought “Fly Away” could maybe have been used as a B-side but its inclusion on that advert changed its destiny. Apart from one minor entry in 2004 with a song from the Bad Boys II soundtrack, “Fly Away” would be Lenny’s final UK chart hit.

We’re still going with this Great British Song Contest malarkey and this week it’s the turn of a duo called Sister Sway and a track called “Until You Saved My Life”. They finished third in the final (out of four) and apparently they were sisters. Here, they give an energetic performance of their very uptempo, high bpm song that was clearly trying to sound a bit like Steps. It’s very repetitive and ground my gears after not too long to the point where I couldn’t wait for it to stop. Never mind saving my life, it nearly killed my ears.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Blondie	Maria	Negative
2	Next Of Kin	24 Hours From You	Nope
3	Unkle featuring Ian Brown	Be There	No
4	The Moffats	Crazy	I did not
5	Barenaked Ladies	One Week	YES!
6	Blur	Tender	No but I had the album
7	Lenny Kravitz	Fly Away	Nah
8	Sister Sway	Until You Saved My Life	Never

Disclaimer

I make no claim to the rights of this show and all ownership and contents including logos and graphics belongs totally to the BBC or copyright holder(s).

All opinions on the music and artists featured are my own. Sorry if you don’t agree

TOTP 12 FEB 1999

Posted on 30 Days Ago by 80stastic

With a couple of exceptions, the running order for this show looks uninspiring at best. Bloody awful would be another way of putting it. There’s no relief to be found in the presenter either as it’s Jamie Theakston. Again. Oh well, I guess I’ll just have to get on with it.

We kick off with…ooh…a bit of a milestone actually. This is the final hit (and therefore last TOTP appearance also) for M People. Eight years and nineteen singles on from their chart debut, it was the end of the road for Mike Pickering and his band of merry men (and woman). They exited in a considered and appropriate manner with a Best Of album and tour and a decent sized hit in “Dreaming”. Except it wasn’t really the end – the end of their run of chart hits certainly but the end of the band? Not quite. They went on hiatus as the new millennium dawned rather than split. However, it seemed to go on longer than expected due to Heather Small’s successful solo career. Then, in 2005 with a new Best Of collection out, they convened once more to do a small tour in support of it. More live dates followed in 2007 before another long break meant they weren’t seen again until 2012/13 when they toured to commemorate 20 years since the release of their Mercury Prize winning album “Elegant Slumming” though Pickering did not take part.

Back in 1999 though, here they were with yet another mid-paced, soul/pop tune that was pleasant but hardly captivating. In fact, whisper it, but I think their formula and sound was starting to get a little bit dull and repetitive by this point. Dare I say, they were all starting to sound the same? Maybe the band felt the same way as well and that was a factor in their decision to step back at that point. Anyway, thanks for everything Mike, Heather, Shovell and…erm…the other one.

What was it with the 90s and hits based on pieces of classical music? Look at this lot:

The Farm – “All Together Now” – Pachelbel’s Canon
Coolio – “C U When U Get There” – Pachelbel’s Canon
Sweetbox – “Everything’s Gonna Be Alright” – Bach’s “Air On The G String”
Take That – “Never Forget” –
Verdi’s “Tuba mirum” from the Requiem Mass
Puff Daddy – “I’ll Be Missing You” -Barber’s “Agnus Dei”

And that’s by no means an exhaustive list! Another one that could be added to it came courtesy of someone called A+. This guy is an American rapper (real name Andre Levins) and he was only 16 years old when this TOTP aired! He must be the oldest looking 16 year old ever! What does he look like now that he’s 44?! Talk about a tough paper round! Anyway, back in 1999, he brought us “Enjoy Yourself” which samples the 1976 Walter Murphy song “A Fifth Of Beethoven” which itself was adapted from the first movement of Beethoven’s Symphony No 5. Theakston seems unaware of the Walter Murphy track despite its presence on one of the best-selling soundtrack albums of all time with sales figures of over 40 million copies – Saturday Night Fever. Yes, although not a Bee Gees song, it was yet another example of source material taken from that film which had supplied so many hits around this period. Interestingly, “A Fifth Of Beethoven” wasn’t the only classical based track on the soundtrack – there was also “Night on Disco Mountain” which was essentially a disco reworking of Mussorgsky’s “Night On Bald Mountain”.

Anyway, enough about its classical origins, was “Enjoy Yourself” any good? Erm…well, it wasn’t terrible and it made good use of those dramatic strings with its coda especially enhanced by the final flourish. Having said all of that, I was never going to buy it. A+ stepped away from the music industry after just two albums in as many years at the end of the 90s citing family reasons and a desire to concentrate on raising his son. He has yet to return to the rap universe.

After a hit based on retro track called “A Fifth Of Beethoven” based on Beethoven’s Symphony No 5 comes another numerical leaning number – “Six” by Mansun from their “Eleven EP”. All these numbers were too much for the mathematically challenged Theakston who says in his intro that they’re driving him mad. Himbo. Anyway, I really liked Mansun’s debut album “Attack Of The Grey Lantern” but I very quickly lost sight of them after that. Why? I think it was that follow up album (also called “Six”) saw the band try out a more experimental sound with a collective commitment to coming up with a new guitar sound for every new riff. Lead singer Paul Draper would later describe the album as “commercial suicide”. Yeah, that’ll be why I lost interest. And yet, the track “Six” sounds like it could have been on “Attack Of The Grey Lantern”. There a reason for this – it was a left over from the sessions from that debut album when it was known as “More”. It’s a good track – atmospheric, slowly building but resoundingly engaging, mysterious but melodic. Maybe they should have led with that as the lead single from the album? Mansun would continue into the 2000s with the No 12 album “Little Kix” and a Top 10 hit “I Can Only Disappoint U” but by 2004’s “Kleptomania” and its chart peak of No 135 (!) the end of Mansun was nigh. Numerous retrospective releases have shown that the band are bothered about their legacy which was also the name of their 2006 Best Of album.

After one of the two exceptions I referred to in my opening to this post, were bank to the crud with..,who? Mirrorball? I’ve nothing down for this at all. Their track- “Given Up” – is based around the 1978 hit “Givin’ Up, Givin’ In” by The Three Degrees but that shouldn’t distract us from the real story to this one which is what the hell is going on in this performance?! Clearly the TOTP production team didn’t know what to do with it as it’s a very repetitive, beat driven dance track which might have been celebrated in a club setting but which doesn’t lend itself to a three minute performance on the BBC’s premier pop music show. The answer? Distract the viewer with some visual effects and some rather creepy stage setting. All the juddery, time lapse camera shots did for me was make me think that there was something wrong with my WiFi connection and that it was buffering although I accept that couldn’t have been any kind of issue when the show was originally broadcast in 1999. It still looks crap though. Then there’s the two blokes sat on a sofa to the side ogling the three performers on stage. It gives off a lap dance club vibe (I’m imagining!) especially when said performers start removing their top garments. The lead singer even goes and sits with them at the end of the song. It’s all very unsettling. Let’s move on…

Really? Another here today gone tomorrow dance track from some anonymous producer, fronted by a female singer under an artist name that meant nothing?! After Mirrorball, here’s Soulsearcher with a hit called “Can’t Get Enough”. Ok, it did spend four weeks inside the Top 40 (albeit descending the charts every time) so not quite the here today gone tomorrow hit I suggested but you get my drift. And yes, the vocalist here was Thea Austin who was the voice on and co-writer of Snap!’s “Rhythm Is A Dancer” so not completely anonymous either but let’s be fair, how many people remember this without any prompting? Not many I’m willing to wager as it’s a fairly underwhelming track which, also just like Mirrorball, has sampled a 70s dance tune, in this case the 1979 disco hit “Let’s Lovedance Tonight” by Gary’s Gang (which were nothing to do with Gary Glitter I should immediately point out). Why were the charts full of this sort of stuff around this time? Was it just bandwagon jumping? Was it the penetration of club culture into the mainstream? If this show is typical of how these 1999 TOTP repeats are going to play out, this might be the worst year of the whole decade.

My mood is not improving with the next hit which is “Boy You Knock Me Out” by Tatyana Ali. This was the sitcom star turned singer who was benefitting from an endorsement by Will Smith whom she starred with as Ashley Banks in The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air. Indeed, Smith provides a video intro here for her performance and yes, almost inevitably, he turns up halfway through the track with a rap that he again delivers via video. It always just struck me as just too comfy and easy a relationship as if all Ali had to do was ask Smith and he would grant her the pop star career she wished for – essentially he was acting out his role as the genie in Aladdin 20 years before the film was released. As for the track itself, it was yet another song that used a sample and an interpolation in its structure (Kool And The Gang and Bobby Caldwell respectively) – wasn’t anyone writing original material back then?

Just like A+ earlier, Ali failed to progress beyond the 90s as a solo female singer releasing just one album under her own name though she has occasionally made available the odd recording down the years. She is currently a children’s author and is also involved in mentoring and advocacy working with various organisations focused on maternal, reproductive, and public health.

It’s the second of those exceptions to the dreary running order now and what a surprise it was! Eighteen years and two months since their last UK No 1, Blondie were back at the top of the charts! This was the then third longest gap between No 1s in chart history but those top two were achieved with rereleases of old hits by The Hollies and The Righteous Brothers not a brand new song. This was quite the achievement. Indeed, apart from a few remixes from their back catalogue, this was Blondie’s first visit to the UK Top 40 since their minor hit “Warchild” in 1982 which made No 39. In their pomp between 1978 and 1980 though, they’d had five No 1s over here – they were a phenomenon. Drug use issues, a resentment of power couple Debbie Harry/ Chris Stein by the other band members and a tail off in commercial fortunes had caused the group to split. In the intervening years, Harry had cared for Stein who had been diagnosed with a rare autoimmune disease of the skin and pursued a fitful solo career that seemed to have more troughs than peaks. Come 1997, with Stein’s health more stable, he and Harry sought to put the band together with original members Clem Burke, Jimmy Destri and Gary Valentine (Nigel Harrison and Frank Infante from the classic line up did not ultimately feature in the reunion). This was no nostalgia trip though – the plan was to record an album of new material which they did in “No Exit” which was trailed by the single “Maria”.

This was a good, solid, proper rock/pop record with a retro feel that stood head and shoulders above the rest of the chart pap. I mean, it wasn’t a “Heart Of Glass” or an “Atomic” but it was pretty good. Written by Destri recalling his Catholic school days, it was straightforward and uncomplicated but catchy as hell with hooks a plenty like that descending chime sequence and bouncing bass riffs. The album sold well enough going to No 3 over here and achieving gold sales status though subsequent singles released from it failed to have anywhere near the success of “Maria”, one of the most unexpected chart comebacks of the decade let alone 1999.

Despite having played this week’s No 1, the show isn’t over as TOTP was dragged into promoting this year’s selection process for the UK’s Eurovision Song Contest entry. Having already narrowed the hopefuls down from eight to four via a semi final stage played out on the Radio 2 shows Wake Up To Wogan and The Ken Bruce Show, it was the job of TOTP to feature one of the four finalists every week for a month leading up to the televised final of The Great British Song Contest on the 7th of March with the viewing public voting for its favourite. In a very tight competition with only just over 1000 votes separating the Top 3 acts, Precious were crowned the winners with their song “Say It Again”. Yes, the first act to be showcased on TOTP would be our entry which means we’ll have three further BBC repeats featuring artists who were doomed to fail and be consigned to the rubbish bin of pop history. This could be excruciating. As for Precious, the five piece all girl band had a pre-Atomic Kitten Jenny Frost in their ranks and a song that was pleasant but predictable sounding like anything Eternal, Honeyz or Solid HarmoniE might have released. How did they get on at Eurovision? Ah well, we’ll get to that in time.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	M People	Dreaming	No
2	A+	Enjoy Yourself	Not for me
3	Mansun	Six	Negative
4	Mirrorball	Given Up	I did not
5	Soulsearcher	Can’t Get Enough	Nope
6	Tatyana Ali	Boy You Knock Me Out	Nah
7	Blondie	Maria	Good tune but no
8	Precious	Say It Again	And no

Disclaimer

I make no claim to the rights of this show and all ownership and contents including logos and graphics belongs totally to the BBC or copyright holder(s).

All opinions on the music and artists featured are my own. Sorry if you don’t agree.